
lilSS 



I .1 



PEICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 



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larttteim 



THE 



CIPHER DISPATCHES. 



Ahmys standing fast in the final citadel of Potver, the keen, 
bright sunlight of publicity. 
— [Maston Marble, Letter on " Tlie Electoral Cmnmission." 



EXTRA NO. 44. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS: 

Fage. 
INTRODUCTION 1 

THE CIPHER SYSTEMS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION 2 

THE FLORIDA TELEGRAMS 11 

THE SOUTH CAROLINA TELEGRAMS 23 

THE OREGON TELEGRAMS 35 

LOCAL TELEGRAMS 41 




He-w York ^-vlU 






THE 



CIPHER DISPATCHES 



97 f 
1 



Always standing fast in the final citadel of Power, the keen, 
bright sunlight of piiblicity. 

— [Manton Marble, Letter on " Tlie Electoral Commission^' 



TRIBUNE EXTRA NO. 44. 



NEW-YOKK, 1879. 



£l($8i 



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Cfff^^ 



^ , J . Ujwvui 



Lru 



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y 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the following pages an effort is made to present concisely a con- 
nected account of the translation of the cipher dispatches and of their rev- 
elations. We fii-st began dealing seriously with these dispatches diu-ing 
the Summer of 1878. The fact that the publication of the famous 
" Gobble " message had soon brought forward a person familiar with the 
cipher in which it was sent, led to the belief that a similar result might 
be reached again. Specimens of the various ciphers were accordingly 
published, from time to time, accompanied with comments, intended to 
attract to them wide attention. Our hope, however, was completely dis- 
appointed. No one seemed to know the key. Absolutely no help came 
fi-om any quarter. All manner of suggestions were received, and many 
were tried, but none proved in the end to be of the slightest practical 
value, save a single one commu^nicated by Secretary Kvarts. That gen- 
tleman suggested that possibly a thorough student of pm-e mathematics 
might be able to divine the law on which the ciphers were constructed. 



1>;TR0DUCTI0N. 



Copies of a few of the dispatches were thereupon sent to a 
mathematical professor in a distant city, who had kindly offered to at- 
tempt a translation, on the condition that his name should under no cir- 
cumstances be made public ; and although (having comparatively little 
material to work with), he did not succeed in discovering the system 
upon which the ciphers were constnicted, and never sent a single trans- 
lation until after the same thing had been translated in the office,, 
his work had, nevertheless, cons' derable value, as corroborating 
the results attained by others, be i ore they had ]-eached the point where 
their work proved itself. 

Finally, I committed a large number of the disjiatches to Mr. John 
R. G. Hassard, Chief of The Tkibune Staff, and a serious and deter- 
mined effort for their translation was fairly begun. Sliortly afterward 
Colonel William M. Grosvenor, also of The Tribune Staff, who had be- 
come greatly interested in the specimen dispatches thrown out, asked for a 
chance at the same work, and a considerable number of the dispatches 
were confided to him. These gentlemen at first worked independently of 
each other, and without communication. For a time both groped blindly, 
if not hopelessly, in what seemed the impenetrable darkness of the 
ciphers. About the same date each began to get glimmerings of 
the system on which the double cipher was constructed. When, 
after weeks of labor, they first compared notes, Mr. Hassard had found 
two transposition keys and was just finishing a third, while Colonel Gros- 
venor had found thi-ee others. The system being thus discovered, the 
rest were found much more rapidly. The last was discovered by both 
gentlemen on the same evening, the one working at Litchfield, Conn., 



IXTUOPUCTION'. Ill 



the other at Eno-lewood, N. J. Each hastened to transmit the key to 
me, and the two letters came upon my table the next day within an , 
hour of each other. 

A dictionarv cipher baffled research much longer. Its chamcter was- 
easily detcniiined in the oflice, Hit the dictionary on which it was con- 
stracted could not be found. One circumstance, however, at last dem- 
onstrated that the dictionary in question must be some one of the editions 
of Webster, for one or two words occm-red in some of the dispatches, 
sent in this cipher which Avere not found in any of the modern Eng-- 
lish dictionaries, excepting Websters. Mr. Isaac N. Ford, of The Tribuxe. 
Staff, had meantime laboiiously gone through forty or fifty dictionaries^ 
of all sorts and sizes, omitting unluckily the very one which had at 
first been suspected, for the reason that it happened to be the only one 
not on the shelves of the downtown bookstore where these searches were 
made. Just as the hunt was narrowed down to this particular diction- 
ary, the mathematical professor telegi-aplied that this dictionary was the 
basis of the key, and in twenty-four hours the ciphers it contained were 
unlocked. 

After the main work had been done, a number of dispatches among 
local politicians at the South, apparently of minor importance, sent in 
ciphers of a different character from any previously translated, were at- 
tacked by Mr. Hassard. A mong these were the double number and the double 
letter ciphers. I had intrusted in all about 400 dispatches to Sir. Ilas- 
sard and Colonel Grosvenor. When they had finished their labors only 
thi-ee of that whole collection remained untranslated. These are in ciphers 



ry IXTRODUCTION. 



of wliicli there are no other examples, and they have not yet been 
-jnastered. 

In the original publications, it was found almost impossible to get any 
'■ considerable collection of cipher dispatches printed with entire typographical 
•accuracy. There being absolutely no guide from either the sense or the 
■^ound, pnnters and proof-readers were alike liable to constant error, which 
only the most painstaking watchfulness by an expert could detect. In the 
following pages the ciphers have been revised and re-revised until they are 
now believed to be printed with eMire accui'acy. 

Valuable aid was rendered by many of the younger gentlemen in the 
ioffice, .and as the hunt became keener,* almost the entire Staff 
took part in it. The credit of tralislation, however, belongs 
absolutely to Mr. Hassard and Colonel Grosvenor.' They received no as- 
sistance from any outside quarter, excepting from m& mathematical pro- 
fessor before mentioned, and received from him no translation whatever, and 
DO important clew, imtil after they had discovered it themselves. 

Tribune Office, ) •Or i? 

U Jan., 18.79. ^ ^' 




EXTRA NO. 44. 



NEW- YORK, NOVEMBER 12, 1878. 



PRICE 25 CENTS. 



THE CIPHER DISPATCHES. 



" Shall I not ring fire-hell in night ? " 

— I Maston Masble, Cipher DUpatoh to W, T. Pelton, Nov. 1») l€7e:. 



The history of the electoral crisis in November and December, 1876^ 
as disclosed by the cipher dispatches of the Democratic leaders and their 
secret agents, covers a period of at out twenty-eight days, from the 
8th of November, when it first became apparent that the Presidency 
depended upon the count of the vote in two or three doubtful States, un- 
til the 6th of December, when the electoral ballots were duly cast for 
Hayes and Wlieeler. By deciphering these telegi'ams The Tribune has. 
discovered that agents were at once sent out from No. 15 GramercyPark, 
the residence of Mr. Samuel J. Tilden, to South Carolina, Florida, and 
Louisiana, and that others, at the West, received telegraphic ordere to pro- 
ceed immediately to Oregon, in order to "capture" one or all of those^ 
States for the Democratic candidate. They all resorted to bribery,, 
communicating to Mr. Tilden's nephew, Colonel W. T, Pelton, the paX'* 



KeiD-York Tribune— Extra Ko. 44 — The Cipher Difpniciies. 



ticiilars of the bargains they concluded, and receiving from him a distinct 
and foi-mal approval. 

1. In Florida the secret agents were Man ton Marble, C. W. Woolley, 
and John F, Coyle. Marble transmitted to Gramercy Park, first a propo- 
sition for the purchase of the Florida Returning Board at the price of 
$200,000. That was rejected as extravagant, and the figure was reduced to 
$50,000, at which price Colonel Pelton signified his willingness to close 
tlie transaction. It fell thi-ough in consequence of a delay in the receipt 
of the message of acceptance. 

2. In South Carolina the purchasing agent was Smith M. Weed, He tele- 
gi'aphed to Colonel Pelton, on the very day of his arrival at Columbia, a pro- 
posal to buy the Canvassing Board for $30,000, to which Pelton appears 
to have readily assented. This figui-e was too low, and the negotiation, 
after lasting six days, was closed at the price of $80,000. It was ar- 
ranged that Weed should meet a messenger at Baltimore, who was to 
cany the money in three packages ; and he particularly requested that 
Colonel Pelton should act as tins messenger himself Weed accordingly 
aiTived in Baltimore from Columbia on the 20th of November, and Pelton 
an'ived there at the same time from New- York ; but again a little delay 
upset the scheme. Subsequently a plot was formed to buy fom- mem- 
bers of the South Carolina Legislature, for $20,000, and having thus ob- 
tained control of the State government, to put the Hayes electors in jail, 
and lock them up in sepai-ate cells until the day for casting the electoral 
votes had passed. The result of this villany would have been to de- 
prive South Cai'ohna of any vote, and to tlu'ow the choice of a Presi- 
dent into the House of Kepresentatives, which would have elected Tilden. 
The plan failed because the fom* members could not be bought. 

3. In (Jregon the Democratic Governor withheld a certificate from one of 
the Hayes electors on the ground of ineligibility, and, instead of allo-\Wng 
the other electors to fill the vacancy, gave the certificate to a Tilden 
elector named Cronin, who had clearly been defeated. The secret agent 
in Oregon was one J. N. II. Patrick. He telegraphed to Colonel Pelton 
that it was necessary to "purchase a Ivepuljlican elector to recognize 
and act with" Cronin, and the price was $5,000. 'J his proposal likewise 
was accepted, and the money was sent to Oregon, where it an-ived only 
on the 6th of December, just too late to be of any use. 



THE CIPHER TELEGRAMS. 



THE CODES USED, AND HOW THEY WERE DISCOVERED. 



AIwayB standing fast In ttiii final citadel of power, the keen bright sunlight of pabUoity.— [Mantoic MutBLa, 
LttUron " The Electoral CommisBion," August, 1878. • 



In the Snmmer of 1878 The New-York Tribcne 
found itself in possession of a mass of telegrapliic 
dispatches which had passed between certain lead- 
ers of the Democratic party in Xew-York City and 
their coufiucntial agents in various contested 
States, at tlie time of the canvass of the electoral 
votes in 187G, The wliolo number of these dis- 
patches was not far from 400. About lialf of them 
were in plain English ; these, although they were 
■ometimes nscful in ddteimining the meaningot 
messages of anotlier kind, related generally to 
transactions of little importance. The rest were in 
cipher, and a sliglit examination was sufficient to 
show that they covered political secrets of the first 
consequence. They comprised : 

1. Telegrams between the Democratic managers 
in New-York and their agents in California and 
Oregon, relative to the granting of a certificate to 
one of the Democratic eU'ctors who was not elected, 
and the "purchase of a Kepublican elector to 
recoguize and act with him." 

2. Telecrams between the Democratic managers 
in New-York and their friends and secret agents in 
Florida during the progress of the count. 

3. Telesrams between these JJew-York managers 
and their friends and secret agents in Louisiana 
daring the same critical perio<l. 

4. Telegrams between these New-York man- 
agers and their friends and secret agents in South 
Carolina during the operations of the Canvassing 
Board at Columbia, and the argument before the 
State Supreme Court, by whose interference Mr. 
Tildeu's representatives hoped to control the action 
of the Board. 

5. Various dispatches between local Democratic 
politicians in Florida and South Carolina. 

Many of the Oregon telegrams had been already 
published, and as the key to the cipher in which 
they were written was known, the translation of 
the rest was little more than a clerical labor. The 
Louisiana dispatches were fragmentary. Tlio 
Florida and South Carolina correspondence seemed 
to be almost complete and of serious value, and to 
this The Tribune applied itself, with results which 
tfil] be found in the lollowmg pages. 

The task of translation was undertaken by two 



members of the editorial staff of The Tribune, Mr 
.John R. G. Hassard and Colonel William M. 
firosvenor, who, working apart from each other. 
Colonel Grosvenor with the Florida telegrama, 
and Mr. Hassard with those belonging to 
tlie South Carolina case, arrived independently 
and almost simultaneously at the same 
solution of the puzzle. Copies of some 
of the ciphers from each State w^ere sent to a gcntlo- 
raaiu in another city, and he, pursuing a different 
system of deciphering from that adopted by the 
other two, discovered, nevertheless, several of the 
same keys which had been found by Messrs. Grosve- 
nor and Hassard, and produced translations which 
agreed exactly with theirs. 

THE CIPHER SYSTEMS. 
The ciphers employed were of several kinds. The 
Oregon correspondence was con'iucted by what la 
generally called the " Dictionary Cinher." Here 
the first word of the message to be sent was sought 
in a dictionary previously agreed upon, and the 
sender substituted for it the word which occupied 
the corresponding lino a certain number of pages 
forward or hack. Ttio second word was treated in 
the same way, and so on until the whole message 
had been turned into cipher. The person who 
received it got at the translation by reversing 
this process. The hook used in the Oregon aflfair 
was a little " Household English Dictionary," pub- 
lished by T. Nelson & Sons, London, and the ciphers 
were translated by turning back four pages. It 
happened that the Democratic agent in Oregon had 
previously used a modification of this system in 
connection with mining transactions, and when one 
of the political messages was intercepted and pub- 
lished, a Western business man recognized the 
cipher, and a translation of all the dispatches of 
that class which had then been secured was readily 
made. The first complete and correct publication 
of them appeared in The Tribune of September 4, 
1878. The dictionary cipher was also used in a 
few of the South Carolina and Florida messages, 
but the book adopted for these was evidently not 
the same that served in Oregon, and there was no 
clew to the rule by which it was to be used. To 
find it, however, was not a serious difficulty. It 
was only necessary to try every dictionaiy within 



Xcw- iorlc Trih 



^<?l«— E«tm !l\'&. 44— fAe Cipher Dispatehet. 



matter of 

tUT"- 



reach till one was disc , , ... 

was possible to make ''«ij*d by which it 

ciples assumed at '" f^S^- Jwo or three pnu- 
labor. First, i*^ *"* start helped to abridge the 
» waa klkeiD for granted that, as a 
'. convesienoe, thMiuniber of pases to be 
jod, eitlle!t backward or forward, would not ex- 
■teed six or seven, and the trials were consequently 
kept within that limit. Secondly, the dictionary 
Wae either a very largo or a very small one. since 
the correspondents must have adopted one of the 
great standard works to be fonnd in every consider- 
*b]e town, or a pocket abridgment convenient to 
carry in travelliug. Tliiixlly, the key was a shift- 
ing-key, because words were not often repeated ; if 
the number of paees to be turned had been always 
the same, many of the ciphers would have recurred 
feequently. After a long search, the book was 
■tonnd to be Webster's "Pocket Dictionary of the 
English Language,'' and the number of pages to be 
turned varied froai one to live. 

Another system of cryptograms, of which com- 
Jparativelv few eE&mples are found, was devised by 
Tsnbstituting numbers for all the most important, 
■or, as une might say, "tell-tale" words. This may 
be described Bs the " Number Cipher." It was gen- 
erally used In combination with another, and the 
method of translating it will be described further 
on. The following is a specimen : 

Tallahassee, Dec. 1. 
To HeJNRY Havejieyer, .Veie York : 

Sixteen fetch may make thirteen forty of half of 
a twelve eleven ten can you say two in nine imme- 
diatels^ if twenty. Fox. 

Some messages contained numbers and nothing 

else. The local politicians occasionally oor- 

respdnded in that simplest and most futile 

'of all cryptograms, which consists merely 

in the substitution of one letter for another; and 

'there was a simple Substitution Cipher, used only 

'for a short time in South Carolina, which was con- 

' structed by using arbitrary equivalents for a few 

^of the principal "tell-tale" words. This will be 

described in the course of the narrative. 

THE TRANSPOSITIOX CIPHER. 
For a very large majority, however, of all the 
Southern secret dispatches there was one system of 
double cipher, unvarying in its principle, though 
changing often ill its details and mode of application ; 
and a little examination of the pile of telegrams 
made it clear that, the key to this being touud, 
there would be little difficulty in reading the 
most important part of the correspondence. The 
system consisted of a cipher within a cipher. 
First, arbitrary words — generally geographical 
proper names— were substituted for all tell-tale 
expressions. One rarely finds, for instance. " Demo- 
crat" or "Radical," "Hayes" or "Tilileu," "Ke- 
turning Board" or "Elrctor," "Governor" or 
" President," or numbers, or the name of any 
State. Secondly, these suhstitutions having been 
made, the message was broken np and dislo- 
cated, the words being taken out of their 
proper order, and arranged as if they had 
lieen shaken in a bag, drawn out at random. 



and set down as chance dictated. Here is the 
beginning of a long dispatch that has been treated 
in the way described : 

Have Rhine river as is of follows Edinburgh river 
Mississippi been of Rhine Copenhagen river Kliine 
Syracuse parcel to secured Danube Potomac river 
sent Chicago London Edinburgh be river of. 

It might bo supposed that the dislocated word* 
could always be put together again by the exercise 
of a little ingenuity and patience ; but anybody who 
may try the experiment— for example, with the lines 
quoted above (which are complete in sense so 
far as they go, though they are only a frag- 
ment of a dispatch)— will see that the task is 
by no means a light one. When the meaning of 
all the words is understood, it will generally be 
found that a transposed dispatch can be re- 
arranged in a variety of ways, all making 
good sense and good grammar, but all dis- 
agreeing hopelessly in significance ; and when 
the perplexity is increased by the introduction of a 
number of blind words, of which one does not even 
know whether they are nouns, or verbs, or adjec- 
tives, the attempt to reconstruct the sentences with- 
out the aid of a key is almost hopoUss. And yet the 
proper sequence of all the words mtiat be ascertained 
before even an intelligent guess can be niade .at 
the meaning of any considerable number of the 
blind words. The double cipher is, therefore, ono 
of the most ditBcult cryptograms ever devised. But 
almost any cipher, however intricate and ingenious, 
can be read if the translator have a sufficient num- 
ber of specimens to work with ; and there was cer- 
tainly no lack of material in this case. 

DISCOVERY OF THE FIRST KEY. 

The beginning of the discovery was a fortunate 
guess at the meaning of one of the blind words. A 
substitution-cipher that occurs with notable fre- 
quency is " Warsaw." It is found in almost all tlio 
longer dispatches ; occasionally it takes inflections, 
as " Warsawed." The conjecture immediately pre- 
sented itself that it signified eitiier " telegrapli " or 
"answer"; but as the latter word is used without 
disguise in some of the same messages which con- 
tain " Warsaw," the other alternative was as- 
sumed to be the right one — an assuniptiou 
which later discoveries speedily conlirnied, " War- 
saw " proving to be the equivalent of both "tele- 
graph" and " telegram." Accepting this definition 
as correct, the following dispatch of ten words was 
read so easily that it might almost be said to rear- 
range itself at first sight : 

[Cipher.] 
Coi.UMiiiA. Nov. 14, 1876. 
To Henry Havbmeyer. SeH-York: 

Warsaw they read all unchanged last are idiots 
can't situation. w. 

f franslation.) 
Can't rend last telegram. Situation unchanged. 
They are all idiots. ' 

The words m this dispatch arc transposed accord- 
ing to the following order: 0, ;{, U, 1, 10, .5, 2. 7, 
4, 8. Or, to m.ike the matter plainer, let us num- 



77i« Transposition System. 



ber tlie words of tho ciulier, and illustrate the pro- 
cess of trauspositiou : 

ICiplier.] 
1234 5 678 

Warsaw they read all unchaneed last are idiots 

9 10 

tan't situation. 

To make the translation, according to the key 
given above, the 9th word of tlie ciplier must 
come first, the 3d nrit, and then must follow in 
order the 6th, 1st, loth, 5th, 2J, 7th. 4th and 8th. 
The same sequence was tried on other dispatches. 
It litted none until a second message of exactly ten 
words was found, as follows : 
[Cipher.] 

Mc with you Anna communication put Weed 
Charles can in. s. 

This yielded to the same key of transposition, and 
the words beinp rearranged according to the se- 
quence already given, stood thus : 
I Translation.] 

Can you nut mo in communication with Weed f 
Anna Charles. 

The meaning of "'Anna Charles" was still dark, 
but there could be no reasonable doubt that the 
right sequence of words had been found, and this 
conviction was strengthened when a third 10-word 
message yielded readily to the same key. But 
there were very few of these short nies- 
•ages in the bundle, and the sequence that applied 
to them would not fit any part of a longer dispatch. 
Evidently there was more than one key. But how 
did the person who received the cipher message 
know what key to use in translating itf 

THE TRANSPOSITION SYSTEM. 
The inquiry had reached this point, when the curi- 
ous circumstance was noticed that the number of 
words in every transposition telegram was a 
multiple of fave. This, at least, was the strict 
general rule, though a few exceptions to it 
will be noticed later. The shortest message con- 
sisted ot 10 words ; then there were two or three of 
15 words; there were many of 20, of 25, of 30, of 
iO, of 50 words, and they ran up into the hun- 
dreds, always proceeding by fives. This could 
not be accidental ; and the suggestion nat- 
urally arose that there was a connec- 
tion between the regularity of these blocks 
of numbers and the system of transposing them, so 
that the length of the dispatch was the clew which 
guided the person who received it in the 
selection of the key to the transposition. 
Then supposing that there was one se- 
quence of numbers for a 10-word message, 
»nd another for a message of 15 words, and an- 
other for a message of 20, and so on, it would 
only be necessary for the receiver to count the 
words in the telegram in order to know npon 
which of several prearranged sequences it 
Ihad been constructed. This theory was at once 
tested by a group of 30-word telegrams. Five 
■messages of that length were selected, writteu out 



in parallel columns, one word under another, and 
every word numbered, thus : 




The problem now was to find an arrangement of 
the nuiiibers which would make sense of all five 
columns equally. It would not have been dilBcult 
perhaps to contrive a conjectural reading of the 
first column, for that contained only one unknown 
word ; but the interpretation would have been 
nohetterthan a guess unless the other four dis- 
patches had confirmed it. The only systematic 
method of deciphering was to fit together little 
groups of words, trying every rational combination 
of two or three, and verifying the experiment by 
comparison with the corresponding word» 
in the parallel columns. Almost always 
a few words can be found which seek 
each other's companionship obviously and naturally. 
These may be called " guide-words." In the first 
column for instance we have the word " adjourned" 
(27.) We know, by the date of the dispatch, 
(Columbia, November 13), tbat the man who 
wrote it w.os anxiously watching the nroceedings of 
the South Carolina Board of State Canvassers, and 
the inference is clear that the only adjournment he 
would be likely to telegraph about was the adj.mrn- 
ment of the Canvassing Board. We find no open 
mention of the Board in his telegram, 
but there is the substitution-cipher " Lon- 
don," which is used with great frequency all- 
through the correspondence: if that means Can- 
vassing Board, it will make a good nominative to 
" adjourned." Now we also know that the Board 
did not complete its labors till a week after this 
date; the adjournment then was not final, but 
to some particular day, and the day must 
have been given in the dispatch. "London 
adjourned until to-morrow " is a reading which not 
only seems rational, but agrees with the facts as we 
learn them from an examination of the newsnaper 
files for November, 1876. We have, therefore, tho 
sequence 29, 27, 19, 28, which makes sense in th© 



6 



New- York Iribune— Extra No. ii—T/is Cipher Dispatches. 



first column. In the socond, it produces this 
arrangement of -woTds " us out if a;" in the third 
and fourth it yields a large proportion of blind 
■wcrds which give us little or no help ; in 
■the fifth it produces "satistied by Bavaria 
and." All these collocations look at least 
encourasiug. The fragment of a sentence, or sen- 
tences, which we have obtained from the second 
column, "'IS out if a," contains two clews by which 
we can extend the sequence in both directions ; 
plainly the word in thatcolumn which precedes " us 
out" is ''count" (the 10th word), and the 25th 
and 5th words, " intend to," are just as clearly 
the words tliat lead up to "count." Our fragment 
row contanis seven words, and it ends with the arti- 
cle "a" (28). There are only two words lelt in the 
column to which the indefinite article can possibly 
be applied — " few " (24) and the yet unknown 
"Copenhagen" (41. A comparison with tl ■ 
parallel words in the fifth column 8ho«.- 
that " Copenhagen " will not do, and we take "few." 
Kow the phrase "a few" must be followed by a 
plural noun, and unless "Copenhagen" stands for 
a plural noun the only one that remains is 
"things" (26). There is nothing in the 
other columns to help us in deciding be- 
tween them, 80 we leave the sequence for the 
present and try some other blocks. We have 
already got the order, 25, 5. 10, 29. 27, 19, 28, 24, 
fitting perfectly in all the columns, so far as they 
are understood, and we know that the next number 
is either 4 or 26. Let us look for a guide-word now 
in one of the other columns. In the 
4th column we find " dispatch " (17), and a 
most natural thing to say about a dispatch is that 
It has been " received "(30). It is very likels'that 
the message begins with the acknowledg- 
ment "Dispatch received." This sequence 
(17, 30) gives us for the opening words of 
the other 'telegrams, (1st) "Supposed you"; 
(2d) "Ain here " ; (3d) " Best T," and 
{5t!i) " My hope." The verb which seems most ap- 
propriately to follow " Best I" is "can" (2G). and 
the same order gives in other columns " My hope 
email," ".supposed you telegraphed," and so on, 
besides settling our choice between 4 and 
26 as the next number in the sequence just left in- 
complete. In the third column, we are irresistibly 
tempted to try the arrangement 22, 21, 15, "keep 
up appearances." and as that fits all the other tele- 
grams, we accept it as correct. 

Thus we have disposed of 15 of our 30 
words, acid the arrangement o£ the others 
is comparatively easy, because, of course, with 
the elimination of .successive groups of numbers 
the possible penuutatious of (he remainder 
are very rapidly diminished. It is unneces- 
sary to illnstrate the process in .any Inrtlier 
detail. Enough has been said to show that the 
formation of the separate blocks of words is not by 
mere random guessing, but in great part by a strict 
application of the rules of grammar and attentiou 
to known facts ; that the succession of words 
is often not that which may be, but 



that which must be ; and that whenever we resort 
ti> conjecture we verify it by repeated comparisons. 
Little by little the fragments fall easily into their 
appropnate places, and as (hey fit themselves to- 
gether the hidden meaning shines forth, not simply 
in one dispatch, but simult.aneousiy in the 
whole group of dispatches. This, then, is the 
sequence obtained, after repeated experiment and 
close study, for the set of 30-word messages given 
.above: 17, 30, 26, 1, 11, 20, 25, 5, 10, 29, 27, 

19, 28, 24, 4, 7, 13, 18, 12, 22, 21, 15, 
3, 9, 14, 2, 6, 16. 23, 8;— that is to say, 
the seventeenth word of the cipher is the first word 
of the translated message, the thirtieth word of the 
cipher is the second word of the message, and so on. 
But there were many tests still to be applied to the 
solution. The key thus found was tried on a great 
many tr.anspositiou-ciphers, some belouging to the 
Florida correspondence, others to the South Carolina 
collection, others to the Louisiana bundle— dis- 
patches written to and from a number of persons. 
There were some which it did not tit, but it applied 
so perfectly to others, yielding at once an easy and 
intelligible translation without any forced construc- 
tion of sentences, that no .doubt remained of its 
strict accuracy. If the sequence had solved only 
two or three diopatches out of a large number, its 
application to those two or three might have been 
called an accident; but when it was found to suit 
twoor three dozen written by different persons at 
ditferent dates, and sent from ditierent places to dif- 
ferent persons, there could he no sort of question 
that it was a fixed rule. Furthermore, the sequence 
keys were not discovered by one person alone. 
Three investigators, working at a distance from 
each other, upon dilierent bundles of telegrams, 
and without iutertoinmunicatiou, reached iudepeu- 
deutly the same conclusions. Several of the keys 
were found by all three simultaneously. 

The system being established, sequences of 15, of 

20. and of 25 words were fouud by the same plan 
pursued in constructing the longer one. 

COKKELATIVE KEYS, 
luthe course of this work it began to appear that 
for some of the groups of numbers, if not for all, 
there were <wo keys, either of which the correspon- 
dent could use at pleasure ; and this explained 
the exceptional ciphers whose obstinate resistance to 
the first found keys had seemed so puzzling.' Two 
sequences, both in fi'cquent use, were lound for the 
groups of 15 numbers, of 25, and of 30. Arguing 
from analogy that the other keys must liKcwise be 
<loublc, the investigators made a thorough ex.amina- 
tion, winch resulted, as they anticijiateil, in the hnri- 
iugof a second .sequence of 20 minibcrs, .and finally a 
second of 10. Anil this led to the interesting discov- 
ery that each of these second or suiiplementary keys 
was the correlative to the first of the 
same group. This law can best be explained by 
an example. Here is a cipher dispatch of 15 
words, belonging to what may bo called for con- 
venience the first group ; and to m.ako the process 
clearer the words are numbered consecutively : 



Vombinali'jiis of Keys. 



1 2 3450 78 9 

Wiint noleomb tiie Tou or would judse if Waieaw 
10 11 12 13 14 15 

hame come same Mattliews on by. 

Tlie key to tlie transposition in tho group to 
^liich this belones was found by the inductive pro- 
bess already described to be : 8, 4, 1, 7, 13, 5, 2, 
fl. 11, 14. 9, .3, 15, 12, 10 ; that is to say, tlie 8tb 
word of the cipher i.s the first word of the transla- 
tion, the 4tli word of the cipher is the second word 
of the translation, and so on ; and (ho translated 
message accordingly reads : 
8417 13 5 2 6 11 

It you want, Judge Mattliews or Ilolinrabwould come 
14 9 3 15 12 10 

on. Warsaw [tclciTaphl me by pame naioc. 

But this uu'ssage can be equally well translated 
by the other sequence of the 15-\vord group, 3, 7, 
12, etc., which had been found by an independent 
process of induction. In using this correlative key 
wo write the nuu.bers of it over the words of the 
dispatch as they stand in cipher.— thus: 

3 7 12 208 41 11 

Want Holcomb me you or would Judge IC Warsaw 
15 9 14 5 10 13 

name come same Matthews on by. 

Now pick out words 1, 2. 3, 4, etc., in the n.'xtural 
numerical order, and it will be seen that we have 
precisely the same translation which was obtained 
before. As a rule, when Key I. for example was used 
at this end of the line, the correlative Key II. was 
used at the othiT end ; so that the translation of one 
dispatch gave the sequence upon which the receiver 
constructed his answer. This law holds good with 
all the sets of keys. If it had been discovered at 
first, it would have saved half the labor of transla- 
tion ; but coining at the end of the work it serves as 
a striking mathematical demonstration of the accu- 
racy of the ke\ s constructed without knowing the 
relations that existed among them. 

COMBINATION.S OF KEYS. 

The work was perforaicd at lirst with short dis- 
patches only. When the longer ones were uuder- 
takeii, they were found to be all formed upon a com- 
bination of two or more of the ten sequences already 
discovered, or upon the repetition of some one of 
them. Messages of 60 words, for instance, 
were deciphered by applying a 30-word key twice. 
A message of 75 words was read bj' applying first a 
sequence of 15, and then using a 30-word key twice. 
A telegram of 135 words yielded to the following 
rather complicated formula : 15-)-25-)-25-|-20-|-25 
-|-2o. The precise combination that had been used 
was perhaps not always apparent to the receiver, 
but a lew trials with the bunch of keys would gen- 
erally suffice. Occasionally the message itself gave 
the necessary dii-ections for its interpretation. A 
telegram trom Mr. Marble addressed to Colonel 
W. T. Pelton begins: "To Tilden. Repeating 
2.5 cipher only ;" and several repetitions of a 25- 
word sequence do interpret it. Another from 
the same person — a message of 200 words — 
begins : " U'<e four times fiyve cipher," and yields to 
five applications of a 4X5 (i. e. 20)-word key. Occa- 
sionally, however, the receiver was perplexed, and 
telegraphed back for an explanation. Often it 



happened in these compound dispatches that a word 
was dropped by mistake of the writer or telegraph 
operator. In that case, of course, the subsequent 
words were thrown out of place; but by shifting aU 
the numbers of the sequence one step the broken 
flow of the interpretation was at once restored. 
And it is also to bo noticed that where this dropping 
of a word occurs, the dispatch falls short, by one, 
of the number of words necessary to make it a mul- 
tiple of five. B}' following the key it is easy to see 
just where the oinis,sion has occurred. These irreg- 
ularities, therefore, far from invalidating the prin- 
ciple of the key, are on the contrary a strong con- 
fuinatiou of its correctness. They are all traced to 
the same cause and all corrected by the same means. 

Thus by reasoning, by historic illustration, by 
exneriraent, and by comparison all combined. Tub 
Tkibuxe discovered the principle of the transposi- 
tion cipher and learned how to apply it, 
Tne<l upon an immense variety of messages, 
never failing in any case, withstanding 
all conceivable tests of its accuracy, this explana- 
tion passed out of the realm of conjecture or 
probability, and became cortaiu proof. It was 
reached by a slow and careful process of 
induction, just as the laws of natural 
science are found by the observation and 
comparison of facts. With this preliminary, to 
show that the interpretation proeeeds.notby guess- 
work, but by proved rules, the following ten ki>ys 
are presented, one or more of which will rearrange 
any of the transposed dispatches. 

It is to be understood that the numbers 
represent the place of the words as they stand in the 
untranslated cipher, and the order of the numbers 
in each column is the order in which those cipher 
words must be arranged to give the meaning of the 
message : 

TABLE OF KEYS. 



10 wi 


irds. 


15 words. 


30 word". 


25 


Tords. 


30 


words. 


I. 


II. 


III. IV. 


V. 


VI. 


VII. 


VIII. 


IX. 


X. 


9 


4 


8 3 


G 


12 


G 


18 


17 


4 


3 


7 


4 7 


9 


18 


12 


12 


30 


26 


6 




1 12 


3 


3 


■jH 


6 


26 


23 


1 


9 


7 2 


5 


5 


18 


25 


1 


15 


10 





13 6 


4 


4 


10 


14 


11 


8 


5 


3 


5 8 


13 


1 


3 


1 


20 


27 




8 


2 4 


14 


20 


17 


IH 


25 


16 


7 


10 


1 


20 


10 


20 


11 


5 


30 


4 


1 


11 11 


10 


o 


15 


21 


10 


24 


8 


5 


14 15 


12 


19 


19 


5 


29 


9 






9 9 


17 


13 


8 


15 


27 


5 






3 14 


1 


10 


•2 


2 


19 


19 






15 5 


11 





24 


17 


28 


17 






12 10 


15 


7 


5 


24 


24 


25 






10 13 


18 


14 


11 


9 


4 


22 








8 


17 


7 


22 


7 


28 








10 


11 


13 


7 


13 


1 








o 


15 


1 


4 


18 


18 








10 


9 


25 


10 


12 


13 








7 


8 


"9 
16 
21 
14 

4 


8 
23 
20 

3 
13 
IJ 


22 
21 
15 
3 
9 
11 

6 
16 
23 

8 


S 
21 
20 
29 
14 

7 

3 
11 
13 
10 

2 



8 



New-yorh Tribune— Hxtr^ fl'o. i4^The Cipher Dispatches. 



THE SUBSTITUTION CIPHERS. 

After getting the solution of tlie transposition 
ciphers, the " blind words," or substitution ciptiers. 
had next to be considered. Many of them 
explained themsclvee, as soon as the dis- 
patches in which they occurred were 
arranged in proper order. Many were intenircted 
by the help of the newspaper files of the dates to 
■which they belonged. Chosen arbitrarily as 
these words were, it might have been sup- 
posed that it would be necessary to 
rely almost wholly upon guess-work for thetr 
interpretation. This is so far from being the 
case that there is perhaps no part of the 
deeiplieriug process in which the proof of the 
meaning is so clear as when it deals with these 
arliitrary substitutions. An instance has been men- 
tioned in which the history of a day to which a cer- 
tain dispatch refers supplied a strong inference as 
to the signification ox the cipher-word " London." 
Inference, however, was not relied upon for the 
interpretation of this important word. To say noth- 
ingof tliescoresof instances in which the interpreta- 
tion ■' Canvassing Board," as a substitute for •' Lou- 
don" makes sense: there is one dispatch from New- 
Orleans, dated November 21, which settles the ques- 
tion beyond cavil. That dispatch reads in cipher : 

Committees none London sub with but met Mo- 
Belle canvassed our Thames admitted count tally 
counties. 

Being translated by Key IV, it yields ibe follow- 
ing : 

London met ; admitted none but Moselle suli- 
comuiiitoes. Thames counties canvassed tally with 
our count. 

^'ow, itisknown as a matterof history, that on the 
20th of November there was great anxiety as to the 
probable action of the Louisiana Returning Board in 
regard to holdinir secret sessions. The visiting politi- 
cians of both National parties asked to be admitted; so 
did the friends and representatives of various local 
candidates, and a score of other persons. When it 
met on the morning of the 21st the Board decided to 
admit only "tico sub-committees," i. e., a certain 
small number of the visiting Democrats and 
an equal number of the visiting Republicans. 
It tben took up tue returns, and three of the county 
returns which it canvassed were admitted bv 
the Democrats to be correct. Here, then, is an 
absolute demonstration of the meaning of (1) Lon- 
don = ReturiJiug Board ; (2) Moselle = two ; (3) 
Thames = three. We set these down in our vo- 
cabulary, and look for light elsewhere. "Russia" 
appears to denote some important personage. Ex- 
Governor Bigler.who was one of the Tilden visitors at 
New-Orleans, wished to communicate with Russia in 
New-Y(irk,and he intrusted his message to somebody 
to put into cipher. It begins therefore in this form : 
"Bigler to Russia." But about that time wo hud 
Colonel Pulton asking Smith M. Weed at Columbia 
to " Telegraph what is the majority on Rus- 
sia." Who was there in New-York who had been 
running for anything in South Carolina t Nobody 
but Mr. Tilden himself. And that he was Russia, 
there are a hundred tliiuas to show. Another South 



Carolina dispatch mentions a report that " America 
party are trading otr Russia;" and as a matter of 
fact we know that the papers were full just at 
that time of a scheme of the South Caro- 
lina Conservatives to trade off Tilden for 
Hampton. By a somewhat similar course of 
observation, which will be apparent from 
the translated dispatches, "Greece" was ascer- 
tained to be Hayes ; " Ithaca" was shown to stand 
for Democrats, and "Havana" for Republicans. 
"Rochester" was very often used, and here is a 
telegram which proves its meaning conclusively. 

Returning Board attempted to count electoral 
Eochfster this morning. We opposed, and thev ad- 
journed until 3. Think they are cnutrolkd [by] 
Havana party. They said they would count Hochea- 
ter as thev stood on face of returns, aud that was 
all Ithaca asked. 

"Rochestei^' of course can be nothing else but 
"votes" in this case, and there is certainly no diffi- 
culty in identifying "Ithaca" and "Havana," espec- 
ially as it is known that the Democrats in South 
Carolina were then clamoring for a count of the 
vote on the face of the returns. 

IDENTIFICATION OF NUMBERS. 

It has already been seen how the same Louisiana 
dispatch which established the meaning of "Lon- 
don" also demonstrated that "Thames" meant 
"three." and "Moselle" meant "two." The inter- 
preters soon saw reason to suspect that the names 
of rivers always represented numbers, and this 
turned out to be the case. Tlie proofs are complete 
and simple. For example, a telegram from New- 
York to Columbia states that " friend will go 
through on train leaving here to-night at Potomao 
o'clock." One had only to consult the railway 
time-tables of that month to find out at what hour 
the night train for the South left Jersey City, and 
so it was learned that Potomac meant " six." Re- 
peatedly figures of State or county majorities are 
given which can be interpreted by consulting the 
newspaper tiles, and so it was discovered that " Dan- 
ube " was " five " and " Schuylkill " " seven. " 
" River" is a very common word in connection with 
numbers. There is ene long dispatch which has so 
many rivers m it that until the key of transposi- 
tion was found the investigators used to speak of it 
as " the river dispatch." When the words were 
rearranged in tlieir proper sequence thiee rivers 
came together after a numeral, thus " Danube (5) 
river river river." The dispatch evidently referred 
to a large amount, and to a lump sura ; clearly 
"river" could be nothing else than 0. There is a 
New-Orleans dispatch in which the Democrats claim 
a majority of 85 [Mi.ssissippi Danube] to 89 [Mississ- 
ippi Missouri] thousand. The meaning of " .Mias- 
issippi" and of "Danube" had been a.scertained bi;- 
fore that dispatch was rcachcil, but this 
was the first time of encountering " Missouri." 
Yet the interpretation was perfectly simple. The 
majority was Said to be from 85 to 8—, the last unit 
being unknown. It must be sometlung higber tUan 
5, It was neither 6 nor 7 ; those numbers had been 
identified already; of course it was not 8, and there 



Identification of I'ersons—Dwnb tVords—Xumicr Cipher— Vocabulary. 



was notbing left bnt 9. This led the decipherers a 
Btep further. They had all the uuits except 
1 and 4, and two rivers remained, "Rhine" 
and " Hudson." The meaning of " Rhine '' was 
speedily settled by a telegram in which, 
after giving the majority for the Hayes 
electors in South Carolina, "S." went on to say: 
"Jlhine of Tilden's within 230 of their lowest." 
The journals of the period will show that 
cue of the Tilden electors was said to be 
just that uumlicr of votes behind the lowest Re- 
publiciin elei'tor and so "Rhine" was determined as 
"one," and " Hudson " as the equivalent of " lour." 
" Glaseow" and " Kdinburgh" are frequently found 
preceded by numerals, and never found alone. 
It would have been e.isy to guess that 
thev stood for " hundred " and " thousand " 
lespertivrly, but gne.ssing is quite unnecessary ; the 
care with wliuli Mr. Tilden's agents telegraphed 
ih'i dguresof majorities supplied the proof of these 
Interpretations. 

IDENTIFICATION OF PERSONS. 
Tlie cipher dispatches were ranly signed by the 
feal names of the writers, and jet it was easy to de- 
feriuino who the writers were. The telegrams were 
liecessanly sent to a real address, and man}- of them 
either gave or called for an answer. Wlien a mes- 
sage of inquiry is signed "Moses" and addrcss^ed to 
Colonel I'eltou, and the answer to it is signed "Den- 
mark '''and addressed to Mr. Manton Marble, it 
needs no great sagacity to learn that JIarblo is 
"'Moses," and tliat Pelton is "Denmark." Moreover, 
a gri at m'any of the dispatches belonged to a con- 
tinued seri'es of communications, all relating to one 
transaction and un<ler the management ot one or 
two persons. Somewhere in sucli a cliain of tele- 
grams the T.al names of these persons were sure to 
be dischised— if not by a direct answer to their 
questions, then by side-lights thrown upon the cor- 
respondence by allusions in other dispatches. Sev- 
eral telegrams of no apparent consequence in them- 
selves proved very tiseful indirectly by set- 
tling a donbt as to somebody's identity. 
Ifcarly all the persons mentioned in the 
ciphers have made public statements since 
:the translations were printed in TllE TRiBtNfi, 
.and hiive viri ually acknowledged their pseudonj-ms ; 
while none of the conclusions of The Tribune 
as to the identity of "Max," "Fox," "Moses." 
etc., have been denied. There is no doubt, there- 
fore, that " Mo.ses " represents Manton Marble, 
" Fox " is C. W. Woolley, " Max " is John F. 
Coyle, " Denmark " is Wm. T. Pelton, and " W." 
(in South Carolina) is Smith M. Weed. Most of Mr. 
Marble's dispatches appear in cipher to be un- 
signed, and were marked by the telegraph operator 
'* No sig." This is because he (unlike the other 
correspondents) generally counted the signature 
"Moses" as one of the words in his sequence ot 
fives, and when the transposition w.as made by the 
■ cipher key the signalnre was accordingly shitted 
into the body of the dispatch, where the operator, 
-of course, did not recognize it. In translation, it 



fell into its proper place at the end. It has 
been ascertained that the telegrams addressed to 
Henry Havemeyer, New-York, were really intended 
for Colonel W. T. Pelton, the nephew of Mr. Tilden, 
and an inmate of Mr. Tilden's house. No. l!i Gra- 
mcrcy Park. Mr. Havemeyer could not read them; 
and his name was used merely as a blind. 
DUMB WORDS. 
In many cipher systems the use of "dumb words " 
or "nulls," that is, words thrown in merely to con- 
fuse, 18 common. There is something of the same 
sort in the transposition and substitution-cipher. It 
was necessary to fill the sequence of numbers 
exactly, or else the key wo lUl not tit, and when the 
dispatch fell sbort of the proper leiii-'fh " nulls " 
were added to complete the measure. In 
the lorm in which the cipher was sent 
these unmeaning words appeared scattered all over 
the dispatch, bnt when it was transposjd for trans- 
lation they all tell together at the end. There were 
onlv a few ot them— Anna, Charles, Thomas, Jane, 
Captain, Lieutenant, etc., and, of course, thoy were 
easily recognized. Thtre is one dispatch which 
really consists only of the three words, " Matters 
desperate here," but to these seven "nulla" are 
added, in order to make out the sequence of ton. It 
was hardly worth while, perhaps, to go through so 
much for the sake of getting so little; bnt many 
foolish things are to be found in ^e cipher dis- 
patches. 

THE NUMBER-CIPHER. 

Beside the main cipher, the interpretation of 
which is absolutely demonstrable, a second set of 
substituted words is used in eighteen dispatches re- 
lating mainly to transfersof small snmsof money for 
expenses. This is the " Number-Cipher " already 
alluded to. The translation ot some of these ciphers, 
also, is so fully sustained by proof that entire cer- 
tainty exists as to their meaning, but others are 
used in so few instauces that the complete key 
cannot be said to be surely ascertained. 
The following inter.oretatiou, however, has been 
tested first by its aptibeation to every dispatch in 
Which that cipher is nsed. and secondly, by tho 
connection of tlie dispatches thus translated with 
the mass of open di.:patches, or those translated by 
the keys of assured' correctness, and in every 
case the interpretation is found to fit exactly. 
Moreover, Mr. John F. Coyle, who used this cipher, 
has publicly ackuowledged that the translations of 
TiiK TiiiBf.NE are correct. The cipher, he said in a 
letter to Ihe herald, was "almo.st asdiflicult to us to 
use as it has proved to Thk TiirBtiNF, to translate." 
THE VOCABULARY. 
The following list contains the substitution 
ciphers whose moaning seems to be distinctly 
proved. Certain words areused in avery peculiar 
way. In the main transposition cipher, "America," 
" France " and " Europe" stand sometimes for tho 
States of South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana; 
sometimes for Wade Hampton, Governor .Stearns and 
Governor Kellogg; sometimes, also, tor the local 
political organizatiPBu-of • which thMe-' person* 
were the hewdf.- 



10 



NeiB-Tork Tribune— Extra M6i ii—The Cipher Dispatches. 



VOCABULARY. 

MAIN CIPHRR. 

Africa Chamlierlain. 

America Hnmptou. 

Aiiistenlam.. bills. 

Bolivia proposal. 

Brazil too liigli [!1 

Bavaria ? 

Bremen Commissioner fT] 

Cliicago cost. 

Chili ? 

Copenho gen . <1 ollars. 

Denmark Colonel Pelton. 

Europe Lonisiana. 

Europe Governor Kellogg. 

Fox C. W. Woolley. 

France Florida. 

France Governor Stearns. 

Greece Hayes. 

Hav:ina Kepublicans. 

Itirael JIanton Marble. 

rt liaea Democrats. 

Lima accept. 

London Canvassing Board. 

Louis Governor. 

Max John F. Coyle. 

Monroe county. 

Moses Manton Marble. 

Paris draw. 

Pet ersbnrg . . ileposi t. 

Portugal I 

Kochester. . ..votes. 

Russia Tildon. 

Syracuse majority. 

tjtica trading. 

Vienna payable. 

VVaisaw telejirapli, telegram. 

Nuvibert : 

Eiver 0. 

Ebme 1. 

Moselle 2. 

Thames 3. 

Hudson 4. 

Danube 5. 

Potomac 6. 

Schuyliill ..7. 



Mississippi ..S. 

Missouri 0. 

Glasgow hundred. 

Edinburgh . ..thousand. 

Dumb words, or "nulVs 

Anna. 

Captain, 

Charles, 

Daniel. 

Jane. 

Jones. 

Lieutenant. 

Thomas. 

William. 

NtJMBER-CirHEB. 

France Two. 

Italy Three. 

Greece Four. 

England Five. 

One Telegraphic credit. 

Two Will deposit. 

Three Supply or provide. 

Four Havey<iu arranged or depos- 
ited. 

Five Will send, or remit. 

Seven Draw, or draft. 

Nine Bank. 

Ten Dollars. 

Eleven Thousand. 

Twelve Huudred. 

Thirteen Necessary. 

Sixteen Canvassing Board. 

Nineteen Received. 

Twenty Agree, agreed, agreement. 

Twenty-one.. ..Telegraph. 

Twenty-four Vote. 

Twenty-seven... J. F. C'ovle. 

Thirty Republicans. 

Thirty-two Canvassing. 

Thirty-four G. P. Raney. 

Thirty-five Requirements. 

Thirty-seven Member. 

Forty Expenses. 

Forty-one Paid, or protected.. 

Forty -SIX Prompt. 



THE FLORIDA TELEGRAM^. 



The Operations of Manton Marble anb C; W. Woollet. 



BUYING THE BOlRD. 



Traces of money payment are darkly visible.— (Maston Marblb. Letter »n "The Slettoral OammiaUm,'* 
August, 1878. 

Offcriu(t to the highest bidder the sacred muniments of the Presidential title.— | Manton Maeblk. 

An asue-smltten Pariah . . . betrayed his capacity for crime by attempting to hide the true.— IUahtOH 

It Is anybody's secret that throughout the month while this Kroundwork and primary part of the conspiracy 
was heaping up and cementing m debauchment and dishonor, the certificates ot these three State Canvassing 
Boards were for sale. Two were actually purchased. They were bought by promises of ofBce, or by money, or by 
both.— I Manton Marblb. 

Any one of the venal crew could deliver what he deemed a conclusive title to the Presidency. Bnt It was 
DCt there and thus that Mr. Tilden soii(,'ht to compass the defeat of the Republican conspiracy. Whatever the 
wish, or the less alisolute IntcKrity or the more customary morals, ot any devoted adherent, no such transac- 
tion would he couBent to nor connive at, nor permit. — IManton Mailble. 



The true history of the . contest for the electoral votes of Florida in 1876 is told for 
the tirst time in the cipher dispatches of the Democratic managers in that State to and 
from Gramercy Park, New- York. The translations of these dispatches show 
that the confidential agents of Mr. Tilden in that State were Manton Mar- 
ble, C. W. Woolley and John F. Coyle ; that these agents went to Tallahassee 
with prearranged ciphers for communication with the residence of Mr. Tilden ; that they 
first labored by lawful means to secure for him the votes of that State, and failed 
therein because the official returns gave a majority for Mr. Hayes. Cipher dispatches 
regarding th« bribery of a member of the Canvassing Board then passed between 
Mr. Tilden's residence and his confidential agents in Tallahassee. One proposition 
to pay $200,000 for a member was held too high, because another dispr.tch from a dif- 
ferent agent promised a cheaper bargain. Then by both agents separate propositions 
were sent in separate ciphers, to buy a member for $50,000. The reply from Gramercy 
Park was, " Proposition accepted if done only once," and the two agents were separately 
ordered to consult with each other in haste. It does not clearly appear that the goods 
•would have been delivered. Four words were dropped from the dispatch authorizing the 



12 



Nc-c-Yo)-:,- Tribune- Extra No. ii—The Cipher Dispatches. 



jjurcliiise. thus makins it unintelligible. It was alter some delay repeated from Grameroj 
Park in full and intelligible form, but arrived too late, and the visiting statesme i so re- 
ported to Gramercy Park. 

]. 
DISCOVBUll^G THE SITUATION. 



On Wednesday afternoon, November 8, 1876, it 
became known to capable leaders of both parties 
that the Presidential election would probably turn 
ftn. Jhe vote of Florida. In South Carolina Mr. 
^i'klen had fallen far behind the Democratic State 
iickdt. In Louisiana it had been notorious for 
fFi^^lrathnt the Democrats, by systematic beatings 
ai,*<5 tr\)Vdcrs in counties formerly liepuljbcan. had 
ren<i<^'^i' 't possible for the Keturning board, in 
accor(f;*''**'^*itli the peculiar law of that Stale, to 
throw out AttirjS giving largo Democratic major- 
ities. But t/l6?oi-i.t electoral votes of far-ofJ Flor- 
ida would suflice si) s'ecure the election of Mr. liMen, 
if, as telegiama ffem' the Dcmoctatic Committee 
in Florida declared, the inajonty of the popu- 
lar vote in that State haitl ':^pn for Demo- 
cratic electors. Not without reason The Tmbonb 
remarked on Thursday morning,' .the 9th, 
"EvcrythiuK seems to h'nge upon ftes State. 
* * ' It is just possible that tbe election is not 
over— and we wish Mr. Magone had not suddenly 
left this city last night." He went to Philadelphia, 
and there met " Duke Gwinn," the reputed niau- 
agej-of Mr. Tildeu's secret campaign, and Senator 
JveUv, of Oregon, who started for home at once, and 
-wi:o« deeds— are they not reconled in the no- 
'iOTiou« "Gabble" dispatches, deciphered by The 

TlUBU.VI! T 

Fhirida had been bullied and hribed, -bulldozed " 
tind terrorized, through a long and tierce campaign, 
.until even the most hopeful Republicans had almost 
lost confidence that their scattered friends in that 
State, mainly colored citizens, could stand up 
against the assault. On the day of election. Re- 
publican judges and clerks were driven from the 
■polls by force, the boxes were stufl'ed with fraudu- 
lent Democratic votes, and in at least one precinct 
■were afterward seized and burned, to m.ako sure 
that the fraud should not be disclosed. 
Jackson County, which had 700 white 
and 1,1G9 colored citizens, and had given 
nearly 800 Republican maiority in 18G8, 
»nd nearly 400 m 1874, w.as thus made to return a 
Democratic majority of lOG. Proofs of these and 
many other frauds were produced before the Can- 
vassing Board, and afterwards before Congressional 
Committees. And yet the staunch Republicans of 
that State had so well resisted bribery, fraud and 
force that, when the returns began to come in, the 
Democratic managers found that they had been 
beaten. At onc-c they set out to steal the State by 
fraudulent returns, and, imitating the skill of the 
practised pickpocket, began to cry out in pub- 
lic dispatches that "the Radicals inlaid fraud." 
Appoa's for " money " and " material aid," 
prolessodly to resist tlieae "intended" frauds, but 



1876. 



really to secure fraudulent returns for Mr. Tilden, 
wentfromFloridaon theOth to "DukeGwiiin" at 
Philadelphia, and to the National Democratic heai 
quarters at New-York, accompanied with assertio 
that " the State had gone for Tilden by at least 1,6( 
majority." No doubt Democrats at the North h 
lieved this assertion at first, but it is certain thi 
some of the Democratic managers in Florida kne 
that it was false from the start. They needed 
money, however, and the following dispatches shoTf 
how they obtained it: 

Tallahassee, Nov. 9 
To G\Ylss, Philaddiihia: „ ,. , , „. .. 

We need money to resist Radical pranks, btalil 
is for Tilden. A. L. Ka.ndw.pii. 

r2.i 

Jacksonville, Nov. 9. 

Raney & Bloxham : ,. j ♦!. „< 

We will attend to evervthing east and north oi 

Suwannee. You lake middle and we«t in band. 

Expense will be paid. Draw on Payne if you neei 

money. ''• ''■ JJanilis. 

[3.] 
Tallahassee, Nov. 9, 1876. 

To' A. S. HeWht. Everett Ho^ise, ^exo-\ork : 
Our State has gone for Tilden and DemoeraW 

State ticket by at least 1,600. We learn that \\ . i. 

Chandler has left Wasliingt.m for this place, had). 

cats intend tiaud. We need materuil aid to check 

them. Can we get it 1 ^i' i^^'^rc^^r.. 

[4.] 

Nov. 9, 1876. 
A. S. HKWiir, Everett Bouse, New-York : 

Send a good man here to represent your commU 
tee, with an understood cipher. ■ 

W. D. Bloxham. Gko. P. Raney, 
for State Coi 
[5.1 
W. D. Bloxhah, " New-York, Nov. 

Gko. p. Ra.ney. 
Telegram rec'd. ' He has gon^on.^^^ ^^ ^^^^ 

On the night of the 9th, John F. Coyle, a 
torious lobbyist of Washington, who h.id been r 
dering "invaluable services" for Tilden in Nortl 
Carolina, started southward. 
16.1 
Raleigh, N. C, Nov. 11, '7 
HfnrT Havemeyf.R, 15 ^Vest 17 thrst..N. T. . 

Met this here safe Weldou noon Rome arri 
well not things have at look although of on _^ 
Webster Ed give me ThOmiis lustructions me pai 
ticulars yet with to-night and came full seen trai 
Brooklyn. " 

The cipher is now " understood " by others be 
those who used it. By applying Keys III. (for « 
first 15 words), and VI. (for the la.st 20 words). It 
following translation will be obtained : 
[Translation.] 

Arrived f-afe. Met Rome at Weldon this nooi 
Things look well here, although have not yet see 
Fox. Ed. Webster, of Brooklyn, «ame on train wii 



Discovering the Situation. 



13 



me. Give me to-aigbt full particulars and iTistmc- 
tions. Tliomas. Coyle. 

The fact that " Max " is John F. Coyle is proved 
by the foUnwinu telegrams, and by many others 
presently to be civen : 

[7.1 
WEI.DON-, N. C, Nov. 2, 1876. 
Colonel VV. T. Pei.ton, lirerett House, N. Y. : 

Just discovered frauds. Our tickets are printed 
wrong. Have ordered new tickets all over the 
State. I (TO to Kaleigh next train. Such a fraud 
may have been perpetrated in other States. AVaro 
our friends everywhere. Max. 

18.1 
New-York, Nov. 2, '76. 
John F. Covle, lialeiuh. X. C: 

Telegraph me nature of the trands. 

W. T. Pelton. 

Dispatches from Coyle to Havemeyer, through- 
out the telegrapliii' correspondence, were often an- 
swered by Colonel W. T. Pelton, and were ob- 
viously intended for him and for Mr. Tilden, 
though sent to a trustt><i friend and near neighbor 
to avert suspicion. In other unimportant di.s- 
patches to Mr. Havemeyer, Coyle chronicles his 
progress from Weldon, Wilmington, Flemington 
and Charleston. In one from Raleigh, just 
before starting, he says to Havemeyer, "Bar- 
num should go to Louisiana with Sena- 
tors, and also Fox : I know it's the thing 
to do." Thus early, the experienced Coyle had 
apprehended what sort of " mule-buyers," and what 
" invaluable services " Gramercy Park would need 
at the South. For himself, he proceeded to business 
the verv day he arrived at Jacksonville, as follows : 
[9.1 
Jacksonville, Nov. 13. 
Hen'RY HaVe.meyer, 15 n'est llth-sl.. N. Y. 

Just arrived ; had no communication with that 
party. Will telegraph full v every day. Ma.^. 

110.] 
Jacksosviile, Fla., Nov. 13. 
[To .same.] 

In nine one plyne of twelve ten thirty hold Italy 
sixteen thirteen eleven inioriuation will eight that 
three Eneland first ami ko immediately seven 
twenty afternoou twenty situation one to-morrow. 
iSent two Tallahassee seven twenty four has meeting 
to thirty. Max. 

[Translation.] 

Necessary supply tidegraphie credit of Payne in 
First eight Bank live thousand three hundred dol- 
lars. Information that Board will hold cauvassnig 
meeting immediately. Coyle and Riineygo to Tal- 
lahassee to-morrow afternoon. Coyle lia.i sent dis- 
patch situation. Coyxe. 

To translate this dispatch, the words must first be 
transposed by Key VI., repeated, aud the numerals 
afterward interpreted. The Payne intended was 
James H. Payne, President Florida Savings Bank of 
Jacksonville, and Treasurer of the Democratic 
State Committee, but in transmission the word 
was turned into " plyne," and Mr. Havemeyer 
(or Colonel Pelton) could not understand it, as the 
followiufi shows : 

111.] 

New-York, Nov. 14. 
John F. Coyle. orG. P. Raney : 

On what one six cant have seven and frequently 
uncertain twenty twenty seven forty be and 
whom name made to be advise oue nine tifty. 

H. B. 



(Translation.] 
Have telegram. Name uncertain, telegraphic 
credit whom to be made and what bank. Cant 
Coyle on tifty. Advise frequentlj' and be prom**. 

The transposition key is No. VII. The numeral 50, 
being not elsewhere used, may refer to any bank 
or person in New-York, the obvious meaning being, 
" Cannot Coyle draw on " some person. But 
Coyle and Raney had not arrived, and when they 
reached Tallahassee they found the following, of 
which two words are lost : 

[12.] 

New-York, Nov. 15. 
Jno. F. Cotle, or G. P. Ranky : 

Report forty captain one twenty twenty who 

as you to one eight nine stated two for Browa 

thirty by five waiting twenty thirty. H, 

(Use Transposition Key VII.) 
t Translation.] 

Telegram waitine tor you. Forty two thirty 

Brown who telegraph to twenty eight. Report 

requirements a^ stated bv nine Captain. 
[i3.i 

Nov. 14. 
Hexrt Havemeyer, esq.. No. 15 West \7ih-st., N. Y..' 
Am en route to Tallahassee ; reach there to-mor- 
row afternoon. Fox. 

It will appear hereafter that "Fox" was C. W* 
WooUej', of Cincinnati, who, leaving Louisiana, 
w^here he had been for some days engaged, sought in 
Florida a better field for the exercise of his peculiar 
gifts. Bnt the long array of experienced vote-deal- 
ers would have been like an army without a gen- 
eral, in the opinion of at least one man, had not Mr. 
Mantou Marble also arrived to take command on 
the 14th or 15th. His doings and first report now 
appe.ir: 

[14.] 

Tallahassee, Nov. 16. 
Colonel Pklton, 15 Gramercy Park, N. l'.: 

Use hundred and forty cipher all to there advice 
some our must everything cordially necessary one 
coming remain our head received was absolutely 
driving no probably month was result this business 
to majority being evidence will truth but afoot 
Democratic establishing be that distances contriv- 
ing but unquestionable clear nothing Democrats 
slow well followed preserve now be returns doubtless 
to may enormous claim c(mnty first board wrongly 
travel to be will move may canvassing purge and 
will our difficult Governor canvasser received Dem- 
ocrat three egregious action require returns able 
county ot canvassing of already fraud one where 
state board being officers Republican with the im- 
mediate beginning legal other Georgia helpful very 
Governor while need Brown help qiiestious counsel 
Sellers the arising no lu we possible best also and 
Saltoustall remain can he Moses along and here on 
general called on army road to-day officers attorney 
Governor. [No sig.] 

(Use Transposition Key VII. four times, and after- 
ward ii.ey V. twice). 

[Translation.] 
Use hundred and forty cipher. Our coming was 
absolutely necessary. There was no head, driving 
everything to re^-ult. Some one must remain all 
this mouth. Cordially received; probably our advice 
will be followed. Clear Democratic majority un- 
questionable. Democrats contriving nothing but 
to preserve evidence establishing truth. Tbat 
business now well atoot. but slow, distances being 
enormous, travel ilifficult. ( 'an vassing Board doubt- 
less may aud will purge county returns. Governor 
may wrongly claim to be canvasser. Our first 



14 



New-Yorlc Tribune— Hxtra No. 44 — The Cipher BispatcJies. 



move will be to require of the board of tlireo State 
officers, one beiiis able Democrat, immediate actiou, 
eanvassbig returns already^ received, besfinuiug 'witb 
county -where Kepublican 'fraud egrepious. Gover- 
nor Browu, Georgia, very helpful. Sellers the best 
possible counsel in legal questions arising. We need 
no other help while he and Saltoustall can remain. 
Called on Governor, Attorney-General to-day; also 
on army otBcers along road and here. 

Marble. 

Undoubtedly Mr. Marble was one of those who 
really believed at first the assertions of local mana- 
gers that there was a clear Democratic majority, 
and that " the Eadicals " were " infernal scoun- 
drels." Until about the 21st of November, it is 
charitable to suppose that some trace of this belief 
remained in his mind. During this first stage m 
the history of the struggle in Florida, the main 
effort of the Democratic managers was to 
obtaiu full proofs to submit to the Board, and 
Mr. Marble, believing that the board composed of 
three State officers would act honestly, had little 
idea of the proofs of Democratic fraud which the 
Kepublicans were accumulating. At that time he 
did not know, probably, that the local mana- 
gers were holdinc back returns from some of the 
important Democratic counties for a sinister pur- 
pose. Meanwhile, Coyle was drawing money 
for expenses, and Woolley, detained some- 
where, had not yet arrived. The accuracy 
of the translations of cipher dispatches 
can be abundantly illustrated by quotations from 
news dispatches published at that time, and it is 
important to note this verification of the keys 
used, because they also decipher subsequent dis- 
patches of a very difierent character. The follow- 
ing telegrams were sent: 

[15.1 

Tallahassee. Nov. 17. 
Colonel Pelton. 15 Gramercy FarTc, N. Y.: 

Truth board frauds our contrived no purge slowly 
Democratic will official prove friends only returns 
canvassing the arrive to seeking committed move 
law power gives returns expedite our the will by 
board and our published first is opinion on friend 
to-day will returns received already canvassing 
authority [—1 of usurp our by this \/ill greatest 
Governor petition risk dc-m.-nidL-d he have course and 
certificate transmit to lii-utcnaiit for canvass Moses 
law IS of Republican and that both precedent there 
result. [No signature.! 

(Use Key V. four times.) 

[translation.] 
No Democratic frauds contrived ; our friends 
only seeking to prove the truth. Official 
returns arrive slowly. Canvassing board will 
purge returns. The law gives power, and 
our friend on Board is committed by 
published opinion. Our first move will ex- 
pedite canvassing of returns already received. 
This will bo demanded by petition to-day. Our 
greatest risk [is] Governor will usurp authority 
to canvass and transmit certificate of Republican 
result. There is both law and precedent for that 
course. Marble. Lieutenant. 

The " friend on board," was Attorney-General 
Cocke, who had so publicly proclaimed his opinion 
and purpose that objection was made to his acting 
on the board, at its first meeting. 
ll«.l 
Tallahassee. Nov. 18. 
HE>rRY HavemeYeb, No. 15 West nth-si. . N. T.: 
Ten Jacksonville Jacksonville it requested eleven 



place J have one Payne England notify twelve from 
one. If four immediately Daniels as not J you Italy. 

W. Call, 
J. J. Danieu 
Max. 
(Use Key VHI.) 

[Translation.] 
Have you provided five thousand three hundred 
dollars telegraphic credit Payne, as requested from 
Jacksonville ? If you have not, jdace it tele- 
graphic credit J. J. DauieU Jacksonville. Notify 
immediately. 

[17.1 

TALLAIIASiSKE, NoV. 18. 

Henry Havemever, esq.. Ao. 15 West llth-st., X. Y.i 

Our particulars us Engliiud twenty slowly for 
for twenty twelve say progress some surely one 
friends seven wo news send Moses three Moses upon 
but Max. 

(Use Key Tin.) 

[Translation.! 

We progress slowly, but surely, our friends Bay. 
Marble telegraphs particulars. Draw upon twenty 
three far five hundred for Marble. Send us some 
news. Coyle. 

118.] 

Tallahassee, Nov. 19. 
Col. Pelton, 15 Gramercy Park : 

To Russia repeating twenty-five cipher only returns 
demand our circuit know Herald what shall we of 
from will couutiea to Monday shall work news we 
hitherto apply Monday have to received London 
canvassing hope Louis also judge command from 
Emmons some for from to for restraining cooking 
for fairness Louis order opinion begin whose returns 
to Louis to we opinion us that Brown Louis soon 
canvasses notice ne thinks cooked promise to ob- 
tained London of yesterday publish very not give 
means meanwhile to I are returns and of rather 
London Greece Secretary declare State returns game 
because judge for is their all convening result inter- 
cept delays under voice ground declare that not has 
her to on he m authority and iiiay canvass that 
Louis lose Florida returns statute tlieu and super- 
seded has integrity ]>roceedinc Kasson will I him 
his Choate Barlow fool promptly he soon estimate 
Chandler upon see of O'Couors leaves for called they 
telegraphed visits Barlow we advised and Noyes 
wasted to shall Monday others are three otherwise 
proffer continue mean after cooperation to unless 
comptroller coming Robertson on Moses. 

(Use Key VII. seven times, beginning to number 
after the word " only.") 

[Translation.] 

To Tilden. repeating twenty five cipher only. 
Herald will have news of our work hitherto Mon- 
day. We shall demand to know from what counties 
returns received. Monday we shall apply to Circmt 
Judge, from whose fairness some hope for order re- 
straining Governor from cauvassing returns. Also 
tor command to Board to begin. Emmons cooking 
opinion for Governor that he. not Board, canvasses. 
We obtained yesterday promise of Governor to give 
us notice. Brown thinks Governor means very goon 
to publish cooked opinion and declare result lor 
Hayes. I judge their game is rather to intercept re- 
turns. .Si'i'i'etary of State meanwhile delaysconven- 
iiiL' Board hecan.'ie all returns are not in. Then Gover- 
nor, on ground that Florida may lose her voice, and 
that he lias authority under superseded statute to can- 
vass returns and deulare. 1 promptly called see Bar- 
low, proceeding upon O'Conor's estimate of his integ- 
rity. They will fool him. He has telegr.aphed for 
Choate. Chandler leaves soon. Kasson, Noyes are 
coming after Monday. We mean to proQer coopera- 
tion to Barlow, Robertson .and others. Wasted three 
visits on Controller. Shall contuiue unless olher- 
wise advised. Marble. 



Discovering the Situation. 



15 



119.1 

New-Toee, Nov. 19. 
Manto» Marble : 

Or imisl disi)at('li li. for not received trust D 
Tliouuis that you Charles sends for. W. 

(Use Key IV.) 

[Translation.] 
Dispatch received. You must not trust B. or tliat 
for D. scuds for. Thomas Charles, w. 

[20.1 

Tallahassee, Nov. 19. 
Col. Peltox, 15 Grnmercy I'ark: 

Havt us making ol honcstv purposed wilhuKness 
to-day only hi.s trusted internal 15 trould'jsomo 
nobody vrntos scoundrels France these to whether 
and in siiL'itestions writing to result should reeewo 
declare France as we wish or ascertain fo London 
make to belief went for elector.'^ presidential of over 
to-ilay vole out in Chaniiler this their France emia- 
sai'ics professes authority undouhtediv pauie shall 
in to local cook stale Jio.ses tire jirobably ni(rht I 
Prance backing for not bell cei-tilicato iiug in altet- 
ations. 

(Use Key V.) 

[Translation.! 

Purposed only niakin;j honesty of B. (Barlow) 
troublesonio to these infernal scoundrels. Have 
trusted nobody. (Joveruor to-day writes us his 
willingness to receive in -writing 8Ugt;estions wo 
■wish to make as to whether Governor or Board 
should ascertain and declare resnlt of vote for 
Presidential electors. This their game nndonhtedly. 
Chandler professes belief in Governoi-'s aiithorit.y. 
T(/-<lay einissaries went out over State, probably to 
cook local backing for alterations in (Jovernor's 
certificates. Shall I not ring lire-bell in night f 

AlAitm E. 

As an illustration of the correction of the transla- 
tion, see the following letter, quoted in the affida- 
vit of Governor Stearns, submitted to Judge White 
five days alter: 

'B. Pasco, Esq. 

" Sir : Kelcrring to the inquiries maae of me by you 
and other eentleiueii last evenine, I havelo say that T 
shall be very happy to receivo from yon in writing 
any sucgestions you may desire to make as to ilie ques- 
tion whether tbe Governor or the State Canvassiiii; 
Board should ascertain and declare the result of the 
vote for Presidential electors. M. L. Steakks." 

It will bo seen that Mr. Marble, as translated by 
Thb Tiubunk keys, quotes the Governor's exact 
words. 

121.1 

Prob. Nov. 19. 
He.nrt Havemetei?, esq.. Xo. 15 Tf'esl 17th-st., A'. P. 

Bayne useful once P very here may Lawrence at 
concurs if Smith bo sent Perry come of necessity 
him let carriaffe from come will take if in aud there 
he way answer the Thomasville by May . 

(Use Keys III. aud VI.) 

[Translation.! 
Lawrence P. Bayne may be very useful here if 
sent at once. Perry Smith concurs in the necessity. 
Let him come by w.ay of Thomasville, and take car- 
nage from there. Answer if he will come. 

COVLK. 
[22.1 

Nkw-York, Nov. 20. 
To Maxton Marble. Tallahassee : 

That be it Green Cole jmlge is Ashbel A Thomas 
advised Charles H. see. Denmark. 

(Use Key IV.) 

[Translation.] 
M ANTON Marble : 

It is a<lyisc d by Judco Ashbel Green that yon see 
A. II. Cole. Thomas Charles. PeLton. 



[23.1 

NOV. 21, 1876. 
To Colonel Pelton, 1.5 Gramacy I'aric, Jv'. k.: 

Try to have I Ije documents which the Associ.ated 
Press will soon receive to-night sent over the country 
by Western, New-England and other iigeuls. Pray 
stop sending any more people here. They delay 
business, and take up more time than I can possibly 
spare in utterly ncetlless consultation and jialaver. 
Kvcry new one needs the education aud local 
knowledge I have bei^n a week in acquiring. The 
business is all i>i-rfeitly in hand, and every point 
guarded. Iliartily glail to see Perry Smith and 
Gibson, of course, who arrived to-ii.ay. Who is 
Parris t Judge liobertson returns home to-morrow. 
Everything looks well. Manton Marble. 

[21.1 
Tallahassee, Nov. 21. 
Henry Ha VT.MEYER, i\"o. 1.1 West 17 Ik-Hi., A. T.: 

One proceedings culminating twenty legal W 
tells Moses matters by arrived reinforced ol yester- 
ilay Kadicais seven twelve Vi'allace others anil it to 
distance to g.ave agents Noyes hall Drew seulFranco 
for Kasson and for Max. 

(Use Keys IIL and VL) 

(Translation.] 

Marble's dispatch tells of leg.il proceedings. 
WOdUey arrived yesterday. Matters ciilininating. 
Kadicais reinforced by Noycs, Kasioii, Wallace and 
others. Drew for two hundred and a half. Gave it 
to Drew for agents sent to distance. COYIJJ. 

This draft of Mr. Coyle's on "Twcnty-tlireo" was 
not paid, aud he telegraphed the nest day to 
Colonel Pelton direct : 

[25.] 

'lALUlIASSEE, Nov. 22. 

Colonel W. T. Pelton. \o. 59 l.tbnUj-at.. A. York: 

Caused is twelve William you am judge three 
Thomas France may notified embarrassment Daniel 
on Charles anil for twenty half Jane immediately 
draft i)rotcsteil correct. Max. 

(Use Key VH.) 

[Translation.] 

Am notified draft for two hundred and a half 
on twenty three is jirotested. You may judge em- 
barrassment caused. Correct immediately. Thomas 
Charles Jaue Daniel William. Coyle. 

Perry Smith added his remonstrances; Mr, Coyle's 
credit at headquarters being perhaps limited: 
[2G.] 

Tallahassee. Nov. 23. 
W. T. Pelton, FAerett House. JV. T. 

Why no.t answer Max dispatch yesterday. Impor- 
tant. Who is Pains that presents himself here with- 
out credentials f P. H. Smith. 

" Parris " was Mr. E. L. Parris, a New-Y'ork law- 
yer, who had just arrived to take a share in the 
labors of the campaign, and whom all the conspira- 
tors seemed at first inclined to distrust: 
[27.1 
'lALLAnASSFE, Nov. 22. 
Henp.T Havemf.yer, Xo. 1.5 li'est 17ih-st.,S 1'. : 

With be to relations intimate cannot more other- 
wise consent much Moses act with strange in cau 
cheerfully command can Parisians Florida Chirles 
can probably useful Jaue discouraging in Anna 
critical at be more though Fox rate not any there 
useful. 

(Use Key V., twice.) 

[Translation.] 

Cannot consent to intimate relations with 
strange Parisians Can act chcerlully with 
ilarblo in command: otherwise can be lunch more 

useful in . Probably can bo more use' I there 

at any rate. Florida critical, tlio;u;h i ot dis- 
couraging. Fox (WooUey). Cliarlc-- Aui;:\ J.uio. 



16 



New-Tork Tribune— Extra No. 4:4:— The Cipher Dispatches. 



128.1 

New-York, Nov. 23. 
John F. Coyle, Tallahassee: 

One reliable— is roost— of Parris should Jano 
implicit him and reliance accorded. H. 

(Use Key III.) 

tTranslation.l 
Parris is one of (us) and most reliable. Implicit 
reliance should (be) accorded him. Jane. 
[29.1 

New-York, Nov. 23. 
P. H. Smith, Tallnliassee : 

Ti-lt-eram received. Party you ask about entirely 
reliable ; a good lawyer and useful counsellor. 

W. T. P. 

[30.1 

New-York. Nov. 23. 
C. W. WooLi.EY. Tallahassee: 

Refer can fetch as reliable the him me 
8afe with is here if you you to talk War- 
saw possible lose perfectly with don't as party 
Europe here he cards to is of and old trustworthy 
poinlcd hold professes from me you as to Jane what 
out shuffler do an party. Three. 

(Use Key VIII., twice.) 

[Translati m.] 

Telegram here. The party you refer to is per- 
fectlv reliable. You can talk as safe with him as with 
me. Don't lose fetch if possible to hold. Is party 
from Louisiana you pointed out to me here as an 
old shuffler of cards trustworthy, and do what he 
professes? Jaue. 

[31.] 

Tallahassee, Nov. 21. 
Colonel FEVToy, 3'o. 15 Grumerey I'aik ; 

Use Hudson times Danube cipher knowlcdso 
counties past not belief local copies tweuty imbe- 
cility certitied of set till yesterday whole Schuyl- 
kili full situation Moses could accurately it Glas- 
gow Schuylkill twenty give not seventeen Potomac 
would Jli-ssissippi give Havana Syracuse Glasgow 
Syracuse estmiated and couuties twelve county re- 
fuse much throw to strain to scoundrels London 
whollv Ithaca Potomac out Moselle Kochester would 
Manatee only thirty Glasgow too and Moselle nine- 
teen Glasgow throw to sent out Hay narrow marg-.n 
Havana Rochester Moses Thompson is yesterday 
coiiuty Alachua to others pertect proofs our Alachua 
Moselle there to into fortify to to-day Moses us and 
Manatee thoroughly jurist dispatched workine 
Louisiana Moses not most other came regretting 
counties Wilkinson Fox been name Cole arrived 
leaving act yesterday arrived alreadv county 
questions working arrives Biddle .Sunday of com- 
municated IS power [one word dropped] for to- 
day Sellers purpose Barlow neighboring 
heretofore yesterday went suspend will never 
denounce will France downright unless but be 
Florida rope exercise may in London to Senate 
France, give to Moses tight close is fair no earliest 
unquestionably needs wise best and hard it stages 
possible at do will till and except powers full 
further Moses perfectly assistance discreet with- 
drawn for which will is trustworthy granted some 
taken be. [No sig.) 

(Use Key V. ten times.) 

[Translation.] 

Use four times live (i. e., 20-word) cipher. 
Local imbecility past belief. Not till yesterday 
■could Marble get full knowledge of whole 
situation. Twenty-seven couuties, certified copies, 
give sis hundred twenty-seven Kepublican 
maiority. Twelve counties give estimated ac- 
curately eight huntlred and seventeen ma- 
jority. It would not strain Board much to 
throw out two hundred thirty-six Manatee County 
Democratic votes, only scoundrels would refuse 
wholly to throw out two hundred nineteen Kejuil)- 
licau votes Alachua County. Margin is too narrow. 



Marble yesterday sent Thompson and Hay to 
Alachua to perfect our proofs. To-day Marble 
dispatched jurist to Manatee to fortify us tho- 
roughly there, and others into two other counties 
Marble must not name. Cole already arrived been 
act (ively) working. Fox arrived yesterday, regret- 
ting leaving Louisiana. WilKinson came Sunday, 
IS working. Biddle arrives to-day. Sellers went yes- 
terday for neighboring county, [for] purpose hereto- 
fore communicated. Barlow questions power of 
Governor, but never will denounce exercise ; may 
give Governor rope to suspend Florida in Seiiite. 
Unless Board will be downright fair, unquestion- 
ably fight is close and hard. Will do best pos- 
sible to wiu it at earliest stages. Marble needs no 
further assistance, except lull powers, which will 
be taken tor granted till withdrawn. Is I'ome 
perfectly trustworthy and discreet? Maisble. 
[32.] 

Tailahassee, Nov. 21. 
Col. Pelton, 15 Gramcrey I'ark: 

All France next Biddle after man on restraint 
mentioned command he lust in last went upon 
brought for has dispatch France Wednesday lost re- 
turning life Loniiou Jloses associated nearly morn- 
ing shall have now better publish press gut docu- 
ments we fight. 

(Use Key V.) 

[Translation.] 

Man mentioned next after Biddle in last dispatch 
has just brought all he wentfor, restraint upon Gov- 
ernor, command on Board. Nearly lost life 
returning ; now better tight ; we have got Gover- 
nor. Shall publish documents iissociated press 
Wednesday morning. Marble. 



la the ex.act correspondence of the events here 
narrated, and results claimed by each party, with 
news dispatches published at the time, will be 
found conclusive proof of the correctness not only 
of the keys, but of the interpretations givou to 
cipher words. Mr. Sellers, for example, did go to 
the adjoining county, Gadsdeu, to the residence of 
Judge White, at Quincy, and obtained on tbe 20th 
temporary writs of injunction forbidding the count- 
ing of votes by the Governor, and mandamus re- 
quiring the Board to proceed to canvass, as the fol- 
lowing states : 

[33.] 

Tallahassee, Nov. 21. 
General 3. B. Gordon, Columbia, S. C'.-' 

Thanks ; yes. will use it expedient. Stearns con- 
templates usurping canvassing under old super- 
seded statute, and winning by cooked certificates. 
I expose hull North to-day, and that is not all. 
Good and sufficient force here now, well organized. 
Tell Kandolph that job he shoultl have let Fox- 
manage has been too engrossing night and day 
for me to telegraph. Will exchange news here- 
after. We shall put Uncle Sammy through, and 
end the reign of thieves. MANTO>i Malble. 



II. 

MANlFULATIi\0 JvETUHNS. 

Up to about November 22 it may have been possible 
for Mr. Marble and other visiting Democrats to be- 
lieve tbe assertion that Florida had voted for Mr. 
Tilden. But it must have been observed by the 
22d that the local m.anagers were holding back 
heavy Democratic returns, while trying, even by 
mandamus of a circuit court, to compel tbe Board to 
open other returns before .all hadbeeu received, and 
thus enable the Democrats to ascortain exactly 



Manipulating Return$. 



17 



what majorities tbey had to iiiauufactuie. For 
gome days, Mr. W. E. Chaudler's dispatches to The 
Tribune hud hecn earuestly deniiinding the pro- 
duction of returns from Polk, Lrcvard and Lafay- 
ette counties, which finally gave 750 Democratic 
majority. From this time, not a line was sent 
by Mr. Marble, even in his most secret ciphers, 
or by any other Democratic operator in Florida, as 
far as we can learn, implying a belief that the Dem- 
ocrats had any right to the vote of the State ; the 
sole question was whether they could get it, right or 
no right. For some days, they clung to the plan of 
holdingback and altering returns, but Republican 
tactics defeated that game. Meanwhile, the sug- 
gestion in dispatch No. 30, from New-York, 
about "an old shuffler of cards," indicated the drift 
of thought in that quarter, and Mr. Woolley began 
to speak his mind thiough Mr. Marble, thus: 

[34.1 

Tallahassee. Nov. 22. 
Colonel Pelton, No. 15 aramircy Park: 

Or in let Moses for Fox either immediatelv do say 
contingencies asks here answer got j'ou forces to 
together be not why me read Louisiana. 
(Use Key VII.) 

[Translation.! 
Woolley asks me to say. Let forces be got to- 
gether immediately in read (iness) for contingencies 
either here cr Louisiana. Why do you not answer? 

Makble. 

What sort of " forces " did Mr. Woolley want to 
have held in readiness J Armed forces? Had the 
suggestion come from Mr. Watterson, of Kentucky, 
"between the shtrry and the rhampagiie," that 
might have been the meaning. lint Mr. Woolley is 
not a man of blood. He is a man of business. The 
" forces " which he understands how to use can be 
carried in the vest pocket. As yet, however, there 
was some reliance on the returns, and -Coyle tele- 
graphed on Saturday, the 25th, as follows : 
[35.1 
Taixaiia-ssee, Nov. 25. 
Henry Havemever, esq.. JN'o. 15 H'estlTlh-st., A'. I. 

Ten party for twelve Ensland count on despon- 
dent thirty to friends seven commences Monday 
confident of our to-day sixteen forty. Max. 

(Use Key VI.) 

[Translation.! 

Draw to-day for five hundred dollars expenses 
of party. Hoard commences to count on Monday. 
Our friends confident : Republicans despondent. 

Mr. Coyle, however, was not in the full confidence 
of either his associates in Florida or his employers 
, in New-York. The advice from Woolley and Mar- 
ble about "getting forces together" had been under- 
stood. Mr. Smith M. Weed, just returned to New- 
York from an unsuccessful expedition to South Car- 
olina, where he tried to buy the Returning Board, 
assumed the congenial duty of replying to this 
recommendation, and his telegram was addressed to 
the E. L. PaiTis mentioned in the recent inquiries 
from Tallahassee. The medium of communication 
was the "Dictionary Cipher," which Mr. Parris 
alone of the Florida agents seems to have possessed ; 
and the key is applied by turning back one page. 
This mode of translation converts the signature 
"Whip" into "Weed-" 



[36.] 

New-York, Nov. 24. 
E. D. Parris, Tallahassee: 

Recognize forewarning to peruse Socinian and ad- 
measurement us here car antipode of boon beehive 
prop signature interesting auditory appertain conple 
antiphou. Wnip. 

[Translation.] 
Read following to Peri [Perry] Smith, and ac- 
quaint us here. Cannot antagonism of Board b© 
prevented. Should instantei; at any cost. Answer. 

Weed. 

Mr. Woolley wasnot deceived about the situation: 
[37.1 

Tallahasse, Nov. 26. 
Henry Havemeyer, Ao. 15 tl'est n-st.. A'. Y. 

Try Lieutenant weather shall here very Charles 
useful had captain to storm 1 stay be elsewhere or 
more the through. Fox. 

(Use Key V.) 

[Translation.] 

Very bad weather here. Shall I stay through the 
storm, or try to Ix^ more useful elsewhere. Lieuten- 
ant Captain Charles. WooiiEY. 

Apparently Mr. Woolley had expressed his view 
of the situation so freely to other Democratic work- 
ers in Florida that Mr. Marble became unhappy. It 
was the pl.an of Moses to put on airs of righteous- 
ness as long as possible, and, even if at the end 
votes must be bought, to buy them as a pious duty. 
Mr. Woolley, however, had no taste for thin self- 
deceptions, and the two did not wholly agree, but 
Gramercy Park a.ssnmed full responsibility for Mr. 
Woolley, and told him to stay, for reasons which 
Mr. Marble finally came to understand fully: 

[38.1 

Tallahassee. Nov. 27. 
Colonel Pelton. 15 Gramercy I'ark. 

You to by then telegrams you advise neglecting 
nersoii here that and counsels to causing result 
and diviiled trust one imperilling answer find Do 
will one authority in trust way 1 to least nobody's 
him and him possibly transfer calendar at two 
week to best for stand my Parris Rome copies here 
now about bo returns always certihe<l should 
(ilasgow recalled Fox same useless Havana on 
upon claim ditto detectives Syracuse needless and 
indiscreet to impediment begun Russia as man 
derline in and with Louisiana so sessions nobody 
all trusted nuisance 1 by aforesaid concurs a com- 
mit Smith Moses. 

(Use Key VII., four times.) 

[Translation.] 

Y'ou are imperilling result here by causing di- 
vided counsels and neglecting to answer telegrams. 
1 advise tliat you find one person to trust and then 
trust him for at least one calenUar week, possibly 
two. I will stand in nobody's way, and do my best 
to transfer to him authority. About 100 majority 
on certified copies ; Republicans claim same upon 
returns. Rome needless now. should be recalled. 
Parris and detectives always useless, ditto Woolley 
here as (in| Locisiana a nuisance and iiiipi'iliment, 
trusted by nobody. / decline to cmnmil Tihhn loith 
man no indiscreet. Smith concurs in all aforesaid. 
Session begun. Makble. 

It will be observed that Mr. Marble here con- 
fesses that the pretensions of local Democrats of 
"1,600 majority for Tildeu" have dwindled to 
" about 100 majority on certified copies," and has 
begun to think of operations in regard to which he 
"declines to commit Tilden" with any indiscreet 
man. How could Mr. Tildeu be "committed" dan.- 



IS 



Xcw--ioi-k Tribune— Extra Ko. Air—Tlie Cipher Dispatches. 



gerously in connection with honest and lawful 
efforts ? 

On the same day Mr. Marble began to stir himself 
to capture, a vote in Oregon, apparently unaware 
that operat ions had already been started in that 
State, by direct orders from New- York. 

[,S9.J 
Eon. Lafayette F. Giiovicu, Portland {or elsciohere), 

Oreyoti ■• 

It is respectfully snrgested that you refrain from 
the issue o!' any certiliiMto in favor of an elector al- 
leged to have been clioseii November 7tli, who on 
that day was ine)if?ible to that office, until you 
sh.-iU have been adviied tliereon. Z?epZy at my ex- 
pense, i/'you are unciblv to do this. 

Maxton Makble. 
[40.] 

Tailahassee, Nov. 27. 
Gkokge W. SMiin, 1-T Onimcmj Fnrk, Kew-York: 

Governor .sucraested it t.i> from from has hero to 
issuing of been certiriiate refrain Oregon telegraph 
Warsaw of elector iuelitrilile in Spain see favor to 
him not until advised O'Conors my obtain opinion 
■why thereon. 

(Use Keys IV. and v.! 

[Translation.] 

It has been suggested from here to Governor of 
Oregon to refrain from issuing certificate in favor of 
ineliafible elector until advised thereon. Why not 
obtain telegraph him O'Conort opinion t See my 
dispatch to Spain. m. 

141.1 

Tallahassee, Nov. 28. 
To Colonel Pelton, 15 Gi-amercu Park, N. Y.: 

Plea-se yourself about economies suggested. Coyle 
exceetliugly usolul hitlierto. You did not answer 
niy inquiry about Paris, and only mention him at 
this late date. That iiromofcs unity of action, I sup- 
pose. Mention names of Florida friends when you 
■wish to learn how much weight their several re- 
quests deserve. Fox impedes daily. It's no relief 
that you assume responsibility tor difficulties be 
makes. Don't fail to read message to Smith, fifteen 
and twenty eiuher. M. M. 

On tlio 28th day of November, the Democratic 
operators entered upon the tbird and final stage of 
their political "Eake's Progress." Tney were 
astounded when the returns were opened that day 
to find that, instead of the majority of 0.3 which 
fraudulent returns had been made to give tbem, 
they were beaten by 42 majority on the face of tbe 
returns. From Baker County, whicli they had 
counted 94 majority for Tilden, an official return 
gave 41 majority for Hayes. In order to overthrow 
that return, they would be compelled to affirm 
the power of a Keiiublican Board to cor- 
rect errors and frauds in the county returns, 
and then all the rascality of the returns 
from heavy Democratic counties like Manatee 
and Monroe would he exposed. In the end, tbe 
board did correct the Kepublican return from Baker, 
and gave the Democrats 136 votes more than tiie 
official return had given, but they also corrected the 
Democratic returns from Manatee and Monroe, cut- 
ting down the Democratic vote by 577. As 
ooou as it was known that the board must go 
behind the returns, or declare tbe State for 
Hayes, consternation reigned among the Dem- 
ocratic schemers gathered in that dingy room 
In a dilapidated State House at Talla- 
hassee. There ■were present, say press dis- 



patches of that date, besides Democrats of 
Florida, the following from abroail, every one of 
whom has been named in TiiE Tuibune's translated 
ciphers: Manton Marble, Paris, G. W. Biddle, 
D. W. Sellers, Sam G. Thompson, and 
M.alcolm Hay, of Pennsylvania; U. W. Woolley, 
of Ohio; Li!;verett Saltou-^tall, of Massachusetts; 
John F. Coyle, of Washington ; Perry W. Smith, 
of Chicago; Charles Gibson, of St. Lonis, 
and ex-Governor J. E. Brown, of Georgia. 
Any examination of the returns woidd inevitably 
uncover and defeat the Democratic frauds, if the 
members of tiie Board were honest. Then it was 
that Mr. Maible and Mr. Woolley proceeded to bus- 
iness. 

III. 

BUYING A VOTE. 

The earliest direct suggestions of brihery appear 
to be in the disp.atches of Woolley and " Whip," 
Nos. 34 and 36. These were scut before the operators 
in Florida knew that tbeir manipulations of re- 
turns had failed, and no direct replies appear. 
But only two days after the Board had opened 
the certificates, and found a majority for Hayes 
on the face of the returns, Mr. Woolley discovered 
that the pious and polysyll.abic Marble bad not only 
commenced "business," but was getting into the 
way of the worldly and "indiscreet" Woolley him- 
self. Therefore he telegrajihed: 
142.1 

TALLAnASSEE, NoV. 30. 

Henry Havemmei:, 15 Wc.xt lllli-at., Js'. Y.: 

Fetch Daniel to that see wire Charles private 
Moses Captain contracts abstain tbe children tUis 
Jane Irom is Israel of. i'ox. 

(Use Key V.) 

[Translation.! 

Wire Moses to see tliat tbe children of Israel ab- 
stain from fcteb Cdutraets. Tbis is private, 
■lane Daniel Captain Cluirles. Wooi.ley. 

"Fetch "is one of tbe few words which have not 
oeen very satislaetorily translated ; it was not oven 
understood by Mr. Woolley's correspondent in No'sv- 
York. He replied : 

[43] 

New-York, Dec. 1, 
C. W. Wooi.ley. Tallahassee: 
Dont understand; explain. Havemeyer. 

Mr. Woollev was then kind enough to translate 
the word " fetch " in the following: 
[44.1 

'1 AI.T.AIIASSEE, Doc. 1. 

Henry Havemeyer, 15 ff'cs/ 17ili-st., A. Y.: 

Making Jane said you to I William enemy pri- 
vately Daniel propositions Moses last night to Cap- 
tain from 1 lie stop to Fox. 

(Use Key V.) 

|Tr,inslation.] 

I privately s.aid to you last night to stop I.Iosea 
from niaking propos:tious to the enemy. Captain 
Jane Daniel William. AVoollky. 

Is it to bo believed that Mr. Woolley was sbockcd 
at tbe t bought of buying up a IJcpublican member 
of tiic Canvassing Board? in view of his dispatch 
about having " forces in readiness for contingencies 
either here or Louisiana," will anybody believe it * 
Or did Mr. Woolley really think that his chiei 



Buying a Vote. 



19 



Mr. TUden, wonld be shocked ? Had he conceived 
of Mr. Tildon the conception thus expressed by 
Jlr. Marble : " The signal and peculiar mark of 
that plan was this : his absolute trust in moral forces ; 
his entire faith in the people, their volitions and their 
power. And why, of all men in the United States, 
should not ho I" 

But what is to be said of Mr. Marble's virtue f lie 
transmitted in his cipher Mr. Woolley's request for 
"forces," and yet, five days afterward.s, was chiefly 
•worried because Mr. Woolley was " indiscreet." It 
was not the dishonor or criminality of such use of 
"forces" that troubled Mr. Marble, but the impres- 
sion that Mr. Woolley did not cover his busines.s with 
enough venceriui;. Why, then, should Mr. Woolley, 
the blunt and straiplitforward trader, want to stop 
the propositions of Mr. Marble, whose trading was 
veneered with patriotism and varnished with piety? 
Because, unfortunately, JJorbIc ami If'oollcy Kerehid- 
<limj (iijdinut ciu'h other for the same vote, anil pi(tliiio up 
the price, which Mr. Woolley was "discreet" enough 
to see did not pay. Exactly what proposition was 
first transmitted to Gramercy Park bv Mr. Marble, 
or his financial aid, Mr. Coylo, does not appear; some 
dispatches of the series are missiiiR. But llie follow- 
ing show that something very important and strictly 
financial was proposed • 

[45.] 

'lALLAlIASSlvE. Dec. 1. 
Col. Wm. T. Pelto.v, .59 Uberly-st., A. 1'.: 

Answer Max's dispatch immediately or we will be 
embarrassed at a critical time. W. Cam,. 

Nrw-York, Dec. 1. 
Manton Maubie, Tallahassee. Fla.: 

Meet supplied consult read may yes able been to 
but be to ti> be who Smith with request has Daniel- 
•aii't telegram your and requiremeuts. P. 

(Use Key VII.) 

[Translation,] 
Yes. to your request, but consult with Daniel 
wlio h.is been supplied and may be able to meet re- 
quirements. Telegram to Smith can't be read. 

Pklkin. 
J. J. Daniel. , it was shown by dispatch No. 16, 
was the person through whom telegraphic transfers 
of money had been arranged November 18. 

[i7.J 

New-York, Dec. 2. 
J. F. CoYLE, Tallahassee : 

Twenty one nineteen unless you have uineteeu 
five again. H. 

[Translation.! 
Telegram received. Unless you have received 
will remit again. Have.meyer. 

Other dispatches, not of great importance, though 
tbey illustrate the later events, may best be iuserlcd 
here: 

[-18.] 

Tallahassee, Dee. 4. 
Henry Havembyep., esq.. So. 15 West nth-sl.,A\.T. 
Forty ten twenty Anna will vou cover twelve 
promptly one orobablv will all Jane and Capt.ain 
seven immeiliately Italy Greece Daniel me three 
which not.ity. Max. 

Use Key VU. 

[Translation.! 
You will supply imniediatelv telesrrapinc credit 
Coyle seven hundred dollars, WhicbVi 11 probably 
. cover all expenses. Notify me promptly. Captaiii 
Daniel Jane Anna. Coyle. 



[49.1 

Tallahassee, Dec. 5. 
Henry HAVEMEYER.fsg., No. 15 rfcst 17th-af.. N.T.t 
Not iiotifv ten Thomas nine, tlu'oe Moses and this 
twelve, immediately Greece will place twenty, 
takes one Italy seven W. its auv and what need. 

Max. 

Use Key VII. 

[Translation.] 
Supply seven liundred dollars telegr.iphic credit 
Woolley and Coyle, and notify what bank iiiime- 
diat(^ly. Marble will not need any. This fakes its 
place. Thomiis. Coyle. 

Ihe Board had opened the returns on Tuesday tha 
28th of Nov(!mber, had heard evidence on both sides 
patiently, and was obliged to reach a decision vrith- 
in a few days. From the beginning Attorney-Gen- 
eral Cocke had been counted safe by the Democrats. 
Dr. Cowgill, formerl}' of Delaware, was a staunch 
Union man, and Mr. Marble had said it was " wast- 
ing" time to call on him. Secretary of State Mc- 
Lin, for twenty-two years a resident of Florida, 
was once a Confederate, but afterward a 
Union man, and a Kepublican editor of 
reputation as an upright man, but the conspirators 
needed one vote, and what they tried to do let the 
secret dispatches show : 

[50.] 

C'crlili<'al«' require*! to Mosew dceisioB' 
liiive I>on«lon lioiar lor Itolivin, ol fust 
iintl I']<Iiiil>iirKl> nt .Moselle lisiud :t any 
over 4jSlaNK'on' France rec'd. Bussm of 

Use Key VII. 

[Translation.] 

Talla., Dec. 2. 
Colonel Pelton", 15 Gramercy Park: 

Have .jiiMt received a proposition to 
liauti over :i t any honr required 'I'ilalen 
decision ol'ltoard andctirtUicate ot'4iiov> 
ernor lor 300,000. .Marble. 

Did Mr. Marble or Mr. Coyle actually receive 
such a startling proposition T ill. McLin has swom 
that such a piopc«ition was made to him, not by 
him. and theie has been an issue of veracity on the 
matter between him and Mr. Marble, who denies 
that he had any talk with McLin on the subject. 
But the question of grave importance is not whether 
Mr. Marble deceived others or himself, but what had 
Gramercy Vark to answir. This : 

[51.) 

New- York, Dec. 3. 

Manton Mawjle, Tallahassee : 
Warsaw here. Bolivia Brazil. (No sig.) 

[Translation.] 
Dispatch here. Proposition too hieh. (?) 

Mr. Marble was not satisfied witn this answer. Ho 
went to Mr. E. L. Parris and requested that gentle- 
man to represent that his " plan " must be acted 
upon immediately. Mr. Parris thereupon seems to 
b.ave sent the following dispatch in the "Dictionary 
Cipher." It is not signed, but as Parris w.", ; tbe only 
man in Florida, so far as can be learned, who used 
that cipher, there can be no difficulty in determinicK 
the authorship. The key is applied by taming back 



20 



Neic-Tork Trihune— Extra No. A^—The Cipher Dispatche*. 



one page, and tbe translation thus obtained for the 
■word " match " is Marble. 

152.] 

Tallahasse, Dec. 4. 
Hknrt Havemeter, 15 West nth-st., N. x.: 

Scarify secured shear distances settee you ad- 
vanced to husky heart atfectioued with functionary 
sleeper sauce-box exempt tidewater undertaker 
match school plinth settee you scarify nascent bee- 
hive admonish upon imnlacable overhung worry iin- 
derbrush plinth uulaudlockid to untransomed. Six- 
teen twentv-one twenty-three kneel preeminenced 
your lightning. INo sig.J 

LTranslation.] 

Saturday secured. Several dispatches sent you ad- 
dressed to house. Have advised witli friend, f^ltu- 
ationsarae; everything unferlain. Marble says 
plan sent yoii Salurday must l»e acted 
upon iiiinie«liately ; otlierwlse unavailing. 
Plan unknown to undersigned. Sixteen, twenty-one, 
twenty-three just presented your letter. 

What was "secured Saturday"! That day (De- 
cember 2) was the date of Marble's proposal to pui- 
ehase the Board for $200,000. Mr. Blarble asserts 
that he transmitted the offer indeed as a matter of 
news, but that he indignantly repelled it " on the 
spot," and yet here he urges that it be acted upon 
immediately. Gramercy Park, however, had reasons 
not known to Mr. Marble for considering his '" Bo- 
livia" decidedly " Bra/il," for on the preceding 
day the following had come from Mr. Woolley : 
[53.1 

Tallahassee, Dec. 1. 

Henry Havemeter, 15 West llth-st., N. T. 

Sixteen KotoU may maUe thirteen 
ibrly of lialfol" a fwelve eleven ten. Cun 
you say t,\ro in nine immediately ii 

twenty. Fox. 

[Translation.) 
Board Fetch may maWc necessary ex- 
peuse of half of a hundred thousand 
dollars. «'au you say will deposit iu 
bank immediately if ag-reed ? 

Whatever significance may be given to the word 
"fetch," which, it will be remembered, Mr. Have- 
meyer (or Pelton) failed on a former occasion to 
understand, there can be very little doubt as to the 
meaning of the proposal. And the reply of Gramercy 
Park was: 

[54.J 

2:25 p. m. 
New-York, 1 Dec. 

C. W. WooLLET, TaVahassce. 

Twenty one nineteen two ten tw^enty 
cannot however seven l>etore twenty 
four thirty seven nineteen reply forly 
■ix. "• 

, [Translation.! 

! XelCKram received, tf ill deposit dol- 

lars agreed ; (you) cannot, however, 
dra'W l>efoi-c vote member received. Re- 
ply promptly. 

We have no evidence that Mr. Havemeyer ever 
Hat this damning answer, or that he ever read 
•ither the answer or the dispatch to which a reply 
tigned •' H." was sent. He received disp.atches; it 
to probable that Gramercy Park read and answered 
tiiem all. But it is now apparent why the Maible- 
Coyle $200,000 "Bolivia" was not held good. 



Probably. Mr. Woolley learned that bargains were 
going on Dehind his back, for he telegraphed: 

[55.1 

Tallahassee. Dec. 2. 
Henry Havemeyer, 15 West lHh-sl., jV. y.: 

More in select have have whom some you you in 
confidence one winning evidently than. Fox. 

(Use Key IV.) 

[Translation.! 
Select some one in whom you nave more confidence 
than you evidently have in WooUey. 

Woolley. 

The reply, signed " W.," might probably as well 
have been signed W. T. Pelton, and needs careful 

reading: 

[56.1 

New- York, Doc. 3. 
C. W. Woolley, Tallaliassee: 

Perfect you what power we coula and answer 
you caiiiicil l>i-lu-f declined all telegraphed dodo 
all application no in and stay private has you have 
needless other prevent here W. 

(Use Key IX.) 

[Translation.] 

All here have perfect belief in you. 

We cannot prevent needless. No other has 

power, and all application decunep. stay 
and do what you telegraphed you could do. 
Private. Answer. w. 

"AH here" at Gramercy Park— what does that 
mean? What was it that Mr. Woolley "telegraphed 
he could do," which needed not only the secresy of a 
cipher, but the injunction "Private" within that 
cipher ? Mr. Woolley was private — so private that 
the following dispatches, covering precisely the 
same proposition, went to Gramercy Park in two 

distinct ciphers. 

[57.] 

Tallahassee, Dec. 3. 
Colonel Pelton, 15 Gramercy Parle. N. Y. 

Preventinjsr Ifloses best Uolivia or from 
Calass'Otv vote London documents united 
Kochester slates half g;iviii{j [one word 
dropped] concurrence electors his cast 
being: court either of in received of ac- 
tion for Havana. 
(Use Key X.) 

[Translation.] 
Proposition received either j^iTing; 
vole of [line?] Republican of Itoard, or his 
concurrence in Court action preventing; 
electors' vote from being- cast, for half 
hundred best I nitetl States do<'ii>uenls. 
[For g^50,«00 in IJ. S. notes]. Miarble. 
I58.J 

Tali^iiassee, Dec. 4, 
Henry Havemeyer, 15 West nth-st., y. T. 

aialf Twelve may less thirty eleven 
-wiiiniiis ten additional seven for Rive 
lieutenant sixteen Russia. Fox. 

(Use Key IV., and after traiispusitiou translate 
the numerals in aceordauce with tlieir meaning, in 
all other dispatches In the same cipher.) 
[Translation.] 
:9Day IViuning [i. e., WooUey] giye hun- 
dred thousand dollars less half for XiN 
den sidditioMUl tSoard mcmb<-rV Lieu- 
tenant. Woolley. 

Tnere is not much room to doubt what either ol 



Buyivfi a Vote. 



21 



theoe propositinna means. " Hundred thousaml 
dollars less half," means exactly the same as " half 
hnudrod l)e8t United States documents." 

Mr. Marble cannot deny the authorship of the 
above dispatches signed (within the cipher) ''Moses." 
For it will be found hereafter (see dispatch No. GO) 
that he said on the oth of December, in plain En- 
glish and over his own signature, " Finished yester- 
day afternoon responsibility (as) Moses." These, 
however, it may be said, were only propositions. 
How did Gramercy Park reply f The conspnators 
waited, devoured with anxiety. To WooUey came 
only this answer— to his impatient soul how tortur- 
ing I 

[59.1 

Nkw-York, Dec. 4. 
Col. C. W. WooiXKY, Tallahamx : 

Act difulttl time ruin Aim vounaets each all impor- 
tant you in Wamaw oilier of you may ace have or con- 
junction consult him lose uill with and coincide you 
must Israel. [No signature.) 

(Use Key LX.) 

(Translation.] 

See Israel aucl act in conjunction with him. Tou must 
coincide, or you will ruin each other. Have telegraphed 
him consult you. Time important, hivided councils 
may lose all. 

Mr. WooUey rushed to " Israel," or " Moses," or 
Marble, but not one word had he received except the 
folloicing unintelligible dispatch: 
1 00.1 

New- York, Dec. 3. 
Manton Marble, Tallahassee : 

Lima should important in once be concert coun- 
cils and better if trust you can fox done time hnu 
divideU act only iiolivia with and consult here. 

(No signatjire.) 
Mr. Marble could not read this. No one of the 
conspirators could read it. The day was slipping 
away, and the Board might decide on the morrow. 
Mr. Marble telegraphed : 

161. 1 

Tallahassee, Dec. 3. 
Col. Pklton, 15 Gramercy Pirk, 2f. Y.: 

Tell Spam to repeat his message in my cipher. It 
is unintelligible. ilANTON >1arble. 

Meanwhile Mr. WooUey received the foUowing ; 
[62.1 

New-York, Dec. 4. 
Colonel C. W. Woollky, Tallahasse. 

Given Jiochesler that have London will not fully ad- 
vise you use reported so need Lima, Bhine to here if us. 

(Use Key VI.) 

(Translation.] 

Beported here that Board have given us one vote. If 
to you will not need to use acceptance. Advise fully. 

This plainly impUed that power to draw and use 
money had been sent to somebody, but to whom ? 
Mr. WooUey could not learn, and in hot haste he 
denied knowing anything about the " Rhine " (one) 
vote, or the '• Lima" (acceptance) said to have been 
sent. 

163.] 

rAILAHASSEE, DeC. 5. 

Henrt Havemeyer. Xo. 15 West 17 th^st.. A'. Y.: 
No one here knows meaning of words Lima Rhine. 

Fox- 
But at last came the answer to Manton MarWo 
himself. Let " the keen bright sunlight of publici- 
ty" faU npon it. 



164.1 

New- York, Dec. 4. 
MAjrrON Mai;ble. Tallahassee : 

laiiiist xilioiiUI iinportnnt in once be con- 
cert coiiiK'il nntl belleririrn^t you tliere 
very no W:ir>.j»M- «-iin Fox done time 
liini <livi«l4-<l net onls' Uoli via. Willi and 
coiiMiill liere. [No sig.J 

(Use Key IX.) 

(Translation.! 

'I'eletvrani iiere. Propowilion accepted 
il'doneonly once. Itetler consult nith 
^loollvy and act in con«-erl. Von can 
IriiNt liini. 'I'iine very iniporliint and 
there Kliould be no divide<l councils. 

ilerc, then, was the authority so anxiously 
awaited. Here was the authority implied, but not 
received, in the dispatch to WooUey. " If done 
only once," because IVoolley and Marble had sent the 
same irroposition, and Gramercy Park did not want to 
pay twice for the same vote .' Sent, hours at;o, in that 
unintelbgible dispatch which Marble Lad tortured 
all his keys in trying to read, because four words 
had dropped out of it in transmission, viz.: " then very 
no Warsaw." Uere was the order to buy one 
Presidency of these United States for " half 
hundred best United States documcntH." And the 
desired vote 1 The conspirators rushed out — and it 
was too late. The following dispatches teU the 
story : 

TALLAnAfiSEE, Deo. 4. 
Hksry HaVkmeyer, iVo. 15 West lllh-sl., A. Y. 

Saturday William if power joined forty further 
twenty have Charles necessary be Jane you late ten 
sixteen will with and six twenty too to against se- 
cured five from advise appear. Fux. 

(Use Key X.) 

(Translation.) 

Power secured too late. I wenty-five ten appear 
to have joined with Board against contract from Sat- 
urday. Will be prompt and advise you farther if 
necessary. Jane Charles WiUiam. Wooixey. 
[66.] 

Tallahassee. Dec. 5. 
Colonel Pelton. 15 Gramerci/ Park.. JV. Y.: 
Bolivia Laura. Finislied yesterday afternoon 
responsibility Moses. Last night Fox found me 
and said he had nothing, which I knew already. 
Tell Russia saddle Blackstone. 

[Translation.] 

Proposition failed. Finished yesterday afternoon 
responsibility (as)"Mose6." Last night WooUey found 
me and said he had nothing, which I knew already. 
Tell TUdeu to saddle Blackstone. 

One secret yet remains: Had the conspirators 
reason for their hope f They can tell, if anybody 
will now believe them. Mr. WooUey's dispatch, 
nearly unintelligible, seems to imply a belief on 
their part that Attorney-General Cocke, who voted 
with the Republican members of the Bo.ird, to 
throw out Democratic fraudulent returns fi'om Key 
West, had been influenced by " doUars." The one 
thing certain is, that the " doUars " were ready to 
make Samuel J. Tilden President, but the vote was 
not. Perhaps they came too late. But if, in the 
secret purpose of any trusted and sworn member of 
that Board of three, upon whose action depended the 



22 



Xew-York Tribune— Extra Ko. AA—Tlie Cipher Dispatches. 



fateoffortyniillionsof people, there Iiirked a thought 
of treachery and crime, the God of Nations saved 
this land from ruin and dishonor, for bis lightuiuss 
refused, until it was too late, to bear iutelligibly the 
shameful order to cousiimniate the crime, and held, 
their secret until the danger bad passed. He who 
gave to the poo^' black in the dim Everglades of 
Florida the power to defend his rights by his vote; 
He who inspired the newly eufranchised 
citizen to staud like a rock for justice, for equal 
tights and the honor of the Nation, when proud 
white citizens by the thousand wavered, voted 
blindly, or sold themselves ; He also turned to fool 
ishness all the schemes ot Gramercy Park, and all 
the money of Wall-st. The secret cipher meant 
nothing when four words were gone. It came at 
last in full ; the buyer stood ready and the money 
was there, but the vote was not delivered, and tlie 
Nation escaped disgrace. 

In view of the facts here presented, the following 
dispatches published at the time, will be found 
deeply iuterestma : 

IG7.1 

Taixahas.see, 
To Jas. Gordon Bfnnett, HemJd, A'cw-York. 
Confidential : 1 assure you, upon my houor, that 



I cannot find any fiaudulent Democratic voting in 
all Florida ; that 1 can prove thousands of illegal 
Republican votes. Do not talk of piu'tisanship m 
the face of infamous and fraudulent schemes that 
should make any honest man blush with shame to 
be a Kepublican. Manton Marble. 

168.1 

Tallahassee. Dec. 3. 
W. T. Pelton, Everett Ilovsc, Neiv-l'orlc. 

Our people will prove themselves bv their firmness 
and forbearance worthy of the sympathy and confi- 
dence of the National Democracy and all good men 
of the North. We only ask in this crisis that the 
voice of the freemen of the North iind siu-li prmiii)t 
and decisive expression as to compel the id'osiiiitinn 
of tlieir rights. Telegraphic dispatches indnatiii^ 
this s(-ntimeiit received here within the next furty- 
ei^ht hours will be most potent in producing tins re- 
sult. J.J.Daniel . 

[G9.J 

Nbw-Yokk, Dec. 5. 
J. J. Daniels, Tallahassee. , . , ^ . , 

Th(! peoiile of the North look with great anxiety 
to till- liiial miction of the Returning Board in your 
State to-nioirow. All that is desired is a fair, honest 
couut of the votes actually east so that the will of 
a majority of vour people, as expressed at the ballot 
box, shall prevail. To this end the country will sus- 
tain you in every lawful remedy. It is to be hoped 
thati-ightandjusticewillprevail. W. I. i'm.TOS. 



THE SOUTH CAROLINA TELEGRAMS. 



The Expedition of I\Ir. Smith M. Weed to Cohmbia. 



BRIBERY AXD VIOLENCE. 



A great fraud, ■which the American people have not condoned, and never wUI condone— never, never, never I— 
Samuel J. Tildek. Siieecfi on the steps of Xo. 15 Gramercy Fark, Oct. 27, 1877. 

The cause I have represented has embraced the lirgest and holiest interests of humanity.— [Samuel J. IlLOBS. 
Speech at Gramercu Park. 

Tlie puljlic intcro>t in an lioiicst, skilful performance of oiHclal trust must not be sacrificed to the usufruct of 
the incumbents.— fSAliLEL J. Tildex. Letter Acce/iting the Fresidentiat domination. July 31, 1876. 

A few thousand dollars, and the whole atrocious conspirjcy would have been tnirstcd like a puff-ball and blown 
away in dust.— But I apolofrizr for ihe sustccstion. First, I apologizi^ to (5overnor Tildun for coiifrontiuK his char- 
acter with the morally mipotsiblc.— IJI AMOS JIakele. Xctttr <m " Tlie Ulectoral Commission." Auk-, 1878. 

S.J that.beslde^ a plan of campaign, here were " arsenals of ammunition" provided, and lethal weapons fash- 
ioned to the hand of every hater of fraud.— IMaxios JIakble. Letter on " The Electoral Commission." 

The signal and peculiar mark of that plan was Ibis: His absolute trust In moral forces; his entire faith In 
the people, tceir volitloua and their power. And why, of all men in the United States, should not he !—[Manto» 
Makqlk's Letter on *• 2'he Electoral Commission." 

The Story of the secret opei-ations of the Democratic managers in South Carolina compriseB 
a scries of frauds extending over the whole period from ths first announcement of the vote in 
Kovember until the actual assembling of the electoral colleges on the 6th of December. As soon 
as the critical condition of the contest became known. Smith M. Weed, the leader of the 
Tihlen Democracy in the Kew-York State Convention of September, 1878, started for Col- 
umbia. On the day of his arrival at that place he transmitted by telegraph to 
the Tilden headquarters in Kcw-York a proposal to bribe the Returning 
Hoard. Later on the same day he made a more definite propo.sal, which "Denmark" 
promptly accepted. Ncaotiations were conducted for six days; the price was at last fixed at 
$80,000; and Mr. Weed started for llaltimore. where a inesseuger was to meet him with 
the money. Tlirough a little delay at the last moment tUe scheme was ruined, for the 
Eetuming Board suddenly wound up it.s proceedings and dispersed in order to avoid the in- 
terference of the State Su]neme Court. The di.spatches relating to these events are written 
'in the same transposition cipher which was used in Florida. A new cipher then appears, re- 
lating to money transactions of less moment. And thcu a third cipher discloses a plot to 
capture the electoral vote, partly by violence and partly by tht corruption of the Legisla- 



24 Xetc-l'ork Trihune^Exira l^o. 4:4:— lit e Ci pher Disijatches. 

tuie ; its culmination being an attempt directed from New-York, to lock up tbe Hayes elec- 
tors in jail on a charge of contempt of the void orders of an asnrping court, and keep them, 
there until the day of the voting had passed. 



TH£ Fin ST ACT. 

The first returns from South Carolina in Novem- 
ber, 187C, gave the State to the Democrats, but 
■within a few days the aspect of tbe situation greatly 
changed. It soon appeared that the vote on Gov- 
ernor was close, and that Tilden's vote was consid- 
erably behind Hampton's. So uncertain -was the re- 
sult that on the 11th of November, four days after 
theelecton, General Wade Hampton telegraphed 
to New-York that his own majority was about 
1,400, and that of Tilden somewhat less, while Gov- 
ernor Chamberlain at the same time telegraphed 
that after giving the Democrats everything that 
they could plausibly claim, the Eepublicans still 
had a maioritv of 3.200 on the Presiilential electors 
and 2,100 on the State ticket. Other Kepublican 
authorities claimed a majority in the State of 7,000 
for Hayes, and 5,500 for Chamberlain. The fact 
•was that the returns on their face (as it afterwar<l 
appeared), gave the victory to the Republicans by a 
pretty close vote ; hut in two counties, Edgefield 
and Laurens, the fraud, violence and intimidation 
had been so 6agrant that there was little doubt the 
Canvassing Board would throw out their entire 
vote, and this would put both Hayes and Chamber- 
lain very tar ahead. The Cau vassing Board con 
Bisted of H. E. Hayne, Secretary of State; T. C. 
Dunn, Controller General ; William Stone, Attorney 
General; F. L. Cardozo, State Treasurer; H. W. 
Purvis, Adjutant and Inspector-General, and M. J. 
Hirsch, Chairman of the House Committee on Priv- 
ileges and Elections. All these ofhcers were Eepub- 
licans ; Havne, Cardozo and Purvis were colored 
men. Hirsch was a candidate forthe othee of Solic- 
itor of the Hid District, and did Uot act with the 
board, which was thus reduced to tlve members. It 
was the duty of the board to receive and canvass 
the returns of the County Election Commissioners 
for Presidential Electors, Members of Congress, 
Members of the Legislature, and all State olhcers 
except Governor and Lieutenant-Governor ; the 
votes of these two olhcers were to be canvassed by 
the new Legislature. 

The chance of Tilden's securing South Carolina 
under these circumstances appeared so slight that 
■when Mr. Marble. Jlr. Woolley, Mr. Coyle and 
the other noted Democrats dispersed themselves 
over the South for the purpose of " watching the 
count," the putilic apparently forgot to observe who 
took charge of South Carolina, and 'he daily papers 
■which fully reported the movements of the gentle- 
men who vLsited New-Orleans and Tallahassee, 
omitted to record the names of the committee de- 
tailed to proceed to Columbia. Several eminent 
Democrats, however, had reached the capital c' 
South Carolina by the middle of the month. Among 
them were Senator and ex-Governor T. F. Randolph 



ot New-Jersey, Senator John B. Gordon, of Georgia, 
Montgomery Blair, A. H. H. Stuart and Captain G., 
V. Fox, ex-Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Mostj 
of these gentlemen appear to have confined theirj 
activity to the management of legal proceedings m 
the State Supreme Court, to a supervision of the 
proceedings of the Returning Board, and to other 
legitimate actions ; and it is almost certain that ex- 
Governor Randolph at any rate— to say nothing of 
the others— had no suspicion that " a still hunt" 
was going on .all the while, under daily instructions 
from Gramercy Park. The person intrusted with 
the real business of tbe campaign was Mr. Smith, of 
New-York, long known as one of Mr. Tilden's closest 
political friends. 

The Canvassing Board -was required by an old 
law, passed at a time when elections were held in 
October, to meet on the 10th of November, and 
complete the count in ten days. On the 10th, of 
course, the returns were not in, and the board could 
only adjourn from day to d.ay while awaiting them. 
It fixed upon tbe IGth as the time for beginning the 
count of Presidential returns. This would give it 
six davs to finish the canvass, as (allowing for two 
Sundays) its existence would terminate at noon on 
the 22d. 

THE SECRET AGENT ARRIVES. 

On the 10th of November Mr. Smith M. Weed was 
in the Democratic Committee Rooms at the Everett 
House, in New-York, where he made the impressive 
remark to a reporter of J he Herald: " It is very close, 
but we have carried the Unisn honestly, and that 
is the whole thing in a nutshell— we have carried it 
honestly.'' He appears to have left the city that 
afternoon, for on the following day be is known to 
have been on the s.ame train with John F. Coyle, 
(" Max,") going South, a.nd on the 12th he was at 
Raleigh, N. C, where it was alleged at the time in a 
dispatch to a New-York paper he registered at the 
hotel under an assumed name. Coyle meanwhile 
had gone on to Charleston, whence he sends a cipher 
dispatch to Mr. Heury Havemeyer. New- York, stat- 
ing that the counting of the votes of South Caro- 
lina will begin at Columbia on the IGth, and add- 
ing : " Telegraphed VV. to go there." On Monday 
the 13th, the South Carolina Canvassing Board 
perfected its organization, and the same day Mr. 
Weed arrived on the field of action. The prompt- 
ness and evident relish with which he set about the 
aft'air upon which he had been sent, must have sat- 
isfied Gr.imercy Park that here was the right man 
iu the right place. " Moses," before he got down to 
the business of bribery, filled a bushel measure with 
cipher telegrams about " frauds " and " infernal 
scoundrels," and the ringing of the "fire-bell in 
night." and complaints of Woolley and Pelton. The 
secret agent lu New-Orleans protests that " Rip has 
nocomnion sense, ' and that " Bryant will stand no 



Hie Secret Agent Arrives. 



25 



damned foolishness." But Mr. Smith M. Weed goes 
straight to the point, and in a dispatch ot truly 
commercial brevity announces at once his arrival 
and the state of trade. Here is his tirst telegram, 
addressed according to custom to Mr. Havemeyer, 
bnt undoubtedly intended for Colonel Peltoii : 

ri.i 

Columbia, Nov. 1.3. 
Hesrt Havemeyer, Ko. 15 West nilt-it.. Aew-Tork: 

Very news say Copenhagen to from c«n Florida 
you count much in be give what Louisiana am 
placed if mixed insure London Oregon tew intend 
things out a us here. Weed. 

(Use Transposition Key IX.) 

fTranslation.l 

Am here. Things viiv much mixed. Intend to 
count us out. If a far noUars can be placed in lic- 
turmny Hoard [tiil insure, what say your Give news 
from Lnuisiana. Oregon, Florida. 

Although the disp.itch was addressed to Mr. 
Havemeyer, it was answered by "Denmark," and 
DenmarK, as we have seen, is proved to be Colonel 
Pelton. The New-York bureau was still without 
definite news from the other States, and Mr. 
Weed's question about money was evaded. 
|2.| 

New-York, Nov. irj. 
To Smith Wkkd. Cohimhia: 

Those results ailvise Warsnw Rhine well -watched 
Chili Florida and instantly a-s progress closely he 
gives they St-Ttes unless are Carolina us — E(linliur),'li 
count received Louisiana out being .Missi.ssii)pi. 

Denmahk. 

(Use Key X.) 

[Translation.! 

Telegram received. [A word illegiblej be Chili. 
Louisiana gives eight tliousand, Florida one, unless 
they count iis out. Those States, as well as Cain- 
hna, are being closely watched. Advise instantly 
progress and results. 

Mr. Weed, however, pressed his inquiry about the 
money lor the Canvassiug Board. 

CoLrMiuA, Nov. 13. 
Henry Havemkyer, Ao. 15 Vest nih-at., Aeiv- iork. 
Me you do did to qncsMou when you you to morn- 
ing askwl want wlicre go supposed this until come 
to-night important and answer here Warsaw ad- 
journed to-moirow London you. w. 
(Use Key IX.) 

[Translation.] 

Supposed you telegraphed me to come here. Did 
you t Board adjourucil nntil to-morrow .Uisiccr 
toqmsHon askiri thismornbiyiniportniitlo-night. Whore 
do you want you [mej to t;o, aud when t 

'•Denmark's" answer was perhap.i not quite 
so explicit as it ought to have been; but, as 
it will be seen, Mr. Weed had gone ahead in his 
trade, vrithout waiting for it : 

[■i.] 

Ni:w-Yor.K, Nov. 1-1. 
Smith Weed, Columbia : 

Will Uticaand Thomas Chicago Warsaw you pre- 
vent keep America what here do often means fully 
exhaust with to every advise Lima remain the be. 

DKNM.iRK. 

(Use Key Vll.l ^^ 

[Translation.] 

Telegram bee. Kcmain with Hampton [i. c, in 
South Carolina] audexhaust every means to prevent 
trading. The expense lof] whaL you do uillbcmet. 
Keep fulb' advised often. Thomas. 

In <he Dii'anmi'.e the public had been led to be- 
lieve t'f*'. Mr. Tilden meant to conduct his South 



Carolina campaign entirely by the machinery of the 
law. While Mr. Smith M. Weed was reconnoitring 
the Board, the avowed counsel of the Demo- 
cratic party were arguing in the State Supreme 
Coiu-t. They first submitted their ease to the Board 
of Canvassers, urging that the board had no power 
to revise, correct, or throw out any returns, but 
must only act ministerially in tabulating the fig- 
ures reported to them by the county commissioners; 
the statutes conferring upon the board a quasi- 
judicial authority the Democrats held to be uncon- 
stitutional. It was hoped that the returns as they 
stood would elect a Democratic LcgisKatiire. 
Pending the consideration liy the board of this 
theory as to its powers, the Democratic counsel ap- 
plied to the State Supreme Court, November It, for 
writs of prohibition and mandainus to restrain the 
board from exercising judicial functions aud to pre- 
vent Dunn, Cardozo and Hayne, who were candi- 
dates for reelection, from passing upon their own 
cases. Thursd.ay, the 16th, the day set for begin- 
ning the electoral count, was also the day appointed 
for the argument on the mandamus. 
BUSINESS. 

Mr. Smith M. Weed seems to have cared very lit- 
tle about these forensic contests, believing that the 
desired result could bo more surely reached by 
another road. He continued his still-hunt, and be- 
fore receiving Colonel Pelton's dispatch No. 4, he 
put the following upon the wires: 
[5.] 

Coi.uMniA, Nov. 13. 
Hi'NRY Havemeyei!, 1,"> West nth-sL, New-iork. 

Absolutely Petersburg can |iro( ured be Copenha- 
gen may Thomas prompt Kdm.iurgh must if river 
take be you less London Thames will. W. 

(Use key VI.) 

[Translation.] 

Sr lEctiirning: Roiirtl can be procured 
nl>«.olci!<-l.v. >vill yon deposit 30,000 
el«>II«jr«. V .\lai' take less. Must lie prompt. Tlioni.a.H. 

Colonel PeUon's reply to this inquiry has not been 
found ; but the nature of it is plain enough from 
Mr. Weed's rejoinder : 

[6.] 

Coi.rjraiA, Nov. 14. 
Henry Havemeyer, 15 Weal nih-st., Xew-Fork. 

lo situation prospects and Africa desperate in- 
ti'ud Tuanies soon Europe, report every mischief the 
Warsaw in dispatch in acting this will state all 
concert miirniug parties France in aud received. 

(Use Key IX.) \V. 

[Translation.] 

Dispatch received. I'artiea lo report tkismonnug. 
C'hamberl. in, Kellogg and Steams acting in con- 
cert, aud intend mischief in every State. Will tele- 
gvaph prospect soon. The situation desperate in 
all three. 

It is to be observed that Smith Weed never flat- 
tered Mr. I ilden with assurances that he had car- 
ried the State of South Carolina, or any other of the 
doubtful St. ates. He was evidently in telegraphic 
communication with his fellow-laborers in New- 
Orleans and Tallahassee, so that " Africa, Europe 
and France " were not the only persons who ".acted 
In concert " and "intended mischief." Aud while 
Mr. .Marble was protesting that Florida rightfully 
belouged to the Democrats, and that they were ras- 



26 



Xcw-Toric Tribune— Extra Ko. 4:4:— The Ciplier Dispatches. 



cals ■who -nouUl keep it from liim, and that lie 
•\Tonld "put Uncle Sammy through and end the 
reign of thieves," Weed iuTariably admitted that 
"Uncle Sammy" had failed to get enough votes. 
While every Democratic paper and Democratic ora- 
tor throughout tlie land ivas claiming Tildeu had 
carried South Carolina, and Hampton vras tele- 
graphing a similar assertion to the New-York press, 
Smith M. Weed dispatched a very different sort of 
intelligence to Gramercy Park. Remember that 
Hampton himself only claimed a majority of 1,400, 
and then read the following : 

[7.1 

COT.UMRIA. Nov. 14. 

Hemut Havkmeter, 15 West 17thrst., N. T. 

Figure France capture and over vrbat si:c answer 
Europe Moselle Kn.ssia shall little :md appearances 
about best hope Glasgow will up keep Oregon Amer- 
ica be can Potomac behind Edinburg I. w. 

(Use Key IX.) 

LTranslation.J 

Best I can figure, Tilden will be over 2,600 behind 
Hampton, and see little hope ; shall keep up appear- 
ances. Capture Louisiana and Florida. What about 
Oregon? Answer. 

The Oregon scheme -was set on foot just at this 
time. Mr. Marble telegraphed to Governor Grover 
about the end of November, suggesting that a cer- 
tificate should be withheld from the post-office 
elector in that State, evidently supposing that the 
idea was novel and imiiortant ; b>it the plot had al- 
ready been -working tor a fortnight, and had nearly 
reached the poiut of "purchasing a Republican 
elector to recognizB and act -with" Cronin, when 
Moses offered his advice. The hand of ex-Senator 
Gwin, "Duke Gwiu," appears in the early part of 
the Oregon mauosuvrcs. It was seen likewise in 
Florida. It appears repeatedly in South Carolina. 
"Draw on me for whatever you need," he telegraphed 
to Wade Hampton, two days after the election ; 
and later there are mysterious references to " G win's 
plan," by which at the very last moment South Car- 
olina was to be taken awiiy from the Republican 
column. Wherever there were secret transactions 
in those days, one heard of Duke Gwin. 

On the 14th of November Mr. Pelton received dis- 
couraging news from Ijouisiana. Nothing had yet 
been done in Florida, Marble and Coyle being some- 
where on the road between Jacksonville and Talla- 
hassee. The situation indeed looked dark. Weed's 
"parties" probably did not "report" as promptly 
as he expected m the morning, and from the follow- 
ing curt message he appears to have lost patience 

with them : 

18.1 

Columbia, Nov. 14. 
Hexrt Havemryer, 15 Westl7th-.if.. .\cw-York. 

Warsaw they read all unchanged last are idiots 
can't sitnatiim. W. 

(Use Key I.) 

[Transl.ation.] 

Can't read last telegram. Situation unchanged. 
They are all idiots. 

Moreover Jlr. Weed's movements began to excite 
suspii'ioii in Columbia, and his position grew un- 
comfortable. He proposed to hurry mutters, and 



then to turn over the negotiation to somebody else 
[9.1 

CoLii>rBtA, Nov. 14. 
Hknut Havemeter, Xo. 15 West lltlt-st., N. Y. 

Things our yet working but, party are believe 
dont America," Russia nothing claims trading I 
here off' definite party mixed seem I select if party 
in Edinburgli to Danube rerjutrcd disturb proceed- 
ings good don't shall to increase it man sure 
Africa river make to court as watched to better 
■way down think over as turn is send Louis reciiiircd 
am that and to Randolph here onlv well matter if 
if. -w. 

(Use Key VI ; then Key VIIT. twice.) 
[Translation.] 

Nothing definite yet, hut workine. Things 
mixed lieiv. Our p^iriy oiaims Haa-;pton paity 
are ti.idmg oft' Tiblen. I don't btl ^■V(^ it. 
I'r'iceediijjrs in co'.srt lion't seem todisturi' O'ham- 
b -vlaiii party. ^Iisa!! I iiiiT«'a>.« So A'>,000 
»r roqiiju-etl, !o innKv sure V Selcci iiood 
:r;an to s.-nd down if required, as ih.it is thi: only 
way, J?n KJa/c7i<>rf, and if as well tliii-k beldr turn 
over lualter here io Governor Raudtdph. 

DENMARK ACCEPTS. 

The answer this time was oronipt and positive; 
for Gramercy Park too was becoming uneasy : 
[10.1 

New-York, Nov. 14. 
Smith Weed, Cohimh'w : 

River can Warsaw Danube future go here to per- 
haps prospects if you for use necessary trhst assist 
should some done person others must not to be to 
able and you that doubt it I name you yon but ia 
whether part see can Kennedy Utica on him here 
when advised with leaving y<m me see Potomac 
friend to-nigbt train think reach what Russia War- 
saw through go Syracuse you keep the do can is on 
conclusion. Dexmakk. 

(Use Key IV ; then Key X twice.) 
ITranslatioii.) 

Xelegi-aiii liero. 1 on oaii ao Jo lifty il 
ncoes^wsiry. PerJiaps ii>*e rmiire pros* 
pects lor some pni't, but you must see that 
trailing is not done. I doubt whether vou can trust 
it to person you name. Kennedy and others should 
be able to as.-iist. When do y..u think you can reach 
conclusion ? Keep me advised. Telegraph what 
the inajorily is onlilden. Frii-ud will go through 
on train leaving here six to-night. See him. 

" You can go to fifty if necessary ; !)erhaps use fu- 
ture prospects for some part." Was there not in the 
famous letter of Mr. Manton Marble on the Elec- 
toral Commission a scarifying denunciation of ihe 
infani y that would reward the " deputized go- 
betweens and real principals in the crime of revers- 
ing the actual returns." not merely with " the pur- 
chaser s own funds," but with " more immoral pay- 
ments—public otfices possessed through a ciiiue and 
then prostituted for its reward," etc.i 

The reference to Governor Randolph in the two 
dispatches last quoted deserves a word of men- 
tion. Weed evidently did not know the character 
of that honorable and straightforward gentleman. 
Colonel Pelton evidently did. "Denmark" was 
prudent not to " trust" such a man with an alVair of 
bribery. And that Governor Randolph knew 
nothing of this secret business, and had no in- 
timacy with Smith Weed is evident from the follow- 
ing telegram dated only a day later, and bearing his 
initials, which shows that he supposed nothing was 
doing i.i South Carolina, just when the negotiations 
tor the purchasa of that State were coming to a 



jDenmark Accepts. 



27 



head. Itwillbe noticed that in reckoning up the 
Democratic Tvorkers he has not mentioned Weed. 
The message is not in cipher : 

[11.] 

Columbia, Nov. 15. 
Colonel W. T. Pelto>c Everett Home, A'. I'.; 

Stuart has pone home : Bhiir has to return to- 
morrow; Fox probably. This leaves me. I aijam 
repeat that this most important point isoteilookcd. 
Louisiana overcrowih'd. You cannot I'stimati' the 
importance of semling a few well-known inllin'iitial 
men by to-night's train. Argument before Court 
wiU run through Friday, and perhaps Saturday. 
We feel very well. T. F. it. 

"Overlooked " ! One would hardly think so. But it 
may be doubted whether the Keformer in Gramcrcy 
Park "felt very well" when the lollowing frank 
statement of his defeat came from his confidential 
man at Columbia: 

[12.1 

Columbia. Nov. 15. 
Henet HaVEMF.yer, No. 15 J\rst llth-^l., V. J. : 

Cart lul returns of received copies from examin.v 
tion Warsaw out Monroe Moselle Moselle certified 
Rhine Thames America Glasgow Ehine state Khine 
of Ithaca behind Russia officers by estiui.ate Missis- 
sippi show Hudson elected Syracuse and Glasgow 
from aljontand America and balance full and as 
change exactly Edinburgh to in compel front and 
Moselle to have to-night returns it to power to-mor- 
row know us court may shall state it over .aiul 
electors we can Utica clearly hope to-night of we 
eet certain their London London as officers out 
Russia the also Rochester can will a as defeat the 
we London Moselle for of its districts although of 
Schuykill it Syracuse uncertain save here all France 
in this care efibrts where redouble places America 
don't live stay is with secret they Thomas and 
Louis your Europe here to. w. 

(Use Key III ; then Key VIII twice ; then Key 
VI; then Key VIII aeain twice.) 
[Translation.! 

Telegram received. Careftil examination certified 
copies r3turns from 21 out of 32 counties, and esti- 
mate of balance, show Hami)ton elected by about 
1,400 majority, and Tildeu and Democratic State 
officers behind Hampton from 1,800 to 2,000. Shall 
have full returns and know exactly to-niglit, aiul 
it may eompd us to change front in court to-morrow as 
topoioerof Canvassing Board over electors and !<tale 
officers ; then if, as we hope, wtcan get Board to-niyht 
eertmn [byj clearly [merely t] trading districts we 
can save two out of tlie seven votes for Tilden. It's 
uncertain as it will defeat a ui;ijority of the Board, 
although thev don't care to stay here with llaiiiiiton 
Governor. This is all secret here. Redouliie vour 
sftbrts in places where Kellogg and iStearns live [i. e. 
Louisanaand Florida. | 

This di.sp.atch contains 135 words, and lest Col- 
onel Peltoii should be unnecessarily bothered by 
the combination of keys necessary to make it out. 
Weed sent another cipher message right after it, as 
follows : 

[13.] ^ 

Columbia, Nov. 15. 
HenryHavf.metrr, Ko. loWcst 17th-st.,yeu--yorIc : 
First then long river Danube Warsaw Schuyltill 
Thomas read Potomac. w. 

(Use Key I.) 

[Translation.] 

Read long telegram— first sixty-five; then seventy. 
Thomas. 

The "long telegram" is so full of matter for re- 
flection that no one should fail to give it a 
most careful reading. Like aU the rest of Mr. 



Smith Weed's confidential communications, there is 
a plainness about it which is almost refreshing. 
T^iis veter.-in politician is not the victiin of enthusi- 
asms or delusions. Never for one moment <loes he 
pretend to believe that his client has a good cause. 
Never for one moment does he conceal from the 
"claimant" the ugly truth that his case is a desJ 
perate one, and th.it the majonty in South Carolina 
IS unequivocally iigamst him. He has the grace to 
say nothing of " fraud ;" but he goes about his pur- 
cliases ill a plain, matter-of-fact way, and discusses 
rascalities as if they were the ordinary incidents of 
business. The Democratic party, through its law- 
yers in Columbia and its newspaper organs all over 
the Union, wrought itself to a whiti; heat in main- 
taining that returning olhcers could only act minis- 
terially and that it wa.s a monstrous invention of 
Radical villany to assert that the duty of a Can- 
vassing Board is to canvass. To tliis day the Demo- 
crats hold to the same ide.a. But here, in the very 
vortex of the excitement, Mr. Tilden's own man sits 
down quietly to count the returns "on their face," 
and finding that Mr. Tilden is defeated, even when 
the votes of the bull-dozed counties are included, 
he telegraphs: "This may compel us to change 
front in court to-morrow as to power of Canvassing 
Board over electors and State officers," and to rest 
all hopes of victory upon "getting the Board." As 
soon as they " got" tne Board, they were ready to 
turn right about face, and claim for it the very 
powers which they were then begging the court to 
forbid its exercising. And this, as it will be seen in 
the sequel, is what they actually did! The Demo- 
crats of South Carolina will be edified by the dis- 
covery that Mr. Smith WVed proposed, after " get- 
ting" the board, to count in Tildeu by sacrificing 
some of the local candidates ; and there are several 
indications, iu the course of tlie correspondence, 
that the relations between the Tilden clique .and 
the Hampton managers were by no means cordial 
or confidential. 

"GETTING THE BOARD. CERTAIN." 
The .arrangements for " getting the Board, cer- 
tain," seem to have met with entire approbation in 
New- York, although, with characteristic caution, 
Mr. Pelton's principal urged Weed to "try and 
make one portion payable after votes are oast, and 
another portion after final result ;" adding some 
touching observations on the subject of " good 
faith." To the scheme for "tr.ading districts," 
however, he saw .awkward objections, and being a 
man who values consistency, he expressed his viewa 
m a dispatch which would have done credit to Jack 
Bunsby : 

114.] 

New- York, Nov. 16. 
Sjiith Weed, Cohtmiia. 

Be decision umlmibtedly should be last but l.avor- 
able sustainable is had Warsaw to and unon it good 
there which ground would and here could consist- 
ent satisfied impossible it is sust.-iin involve niust^ 
inconsistencies upon else you electing be issue in- 
volved which would or in lie papers action America 
to that [2 words omitted] Utica doubtless Vienna 
justified Rochester make portion all after by are re^ 



28 



yeiv-Yorlc Tribune— Extra Fo. ii—The Cipher Bispalches. 



suit try after is and and prevented final another 
facts portion and important Lima tliere done these 
good are cuarantee and but conditions taith very 
want some what should intended suthcient be you 
result is both Warsaw. Denmark. 

(Use Key VII four times.) 

[Translation.) 

Last telegram here. There is undoubtedly good 

f round upon which favorable decision could be had 
uttobe consistent and sustainable, it would ami 
should involve electing Hamplon. or else it woukl 
be involved in inconsistencies impossible to sustain. 
You must be satisfied that action upon which papers 
issue IS iustitied by facts, and all trading "s pre- 
vente<l. I ry and iiiaUe [onel portion 
payable al"t«>r yoles ai-e [taM]. an«l a"- 
otlifi- portion alVor linal result. Upiibt- 
less good taith is intended; but tliere should be 
some sufficient guarantee accepted. Both the.se con- 
ditions are very important. Telegraph result, and 
what you want done. 

[15.1 

C'lLUMBIA. Nov. 17. 

Henry Havemeyf.h, 13 West 17 Ih-st.. Nmv-York: 

For this Warsaw the anv way misunderstood all 
state lake Ithaca is have deliuite Warsaw and Amer- 
ica plan nnist soon will sure i u officers would tormer. 
(Use Key VUl.) *• 

[Translation.] 
Must have misunderstood former telegram, for 
Hampton is sure any way. and this plan would take 
in all the Democratic t?tate officers. W ill telegraph 
definitejlyj soou 

No. 15 is given hero because it is evidently a 
reply to No. 14 ; but the messages often crossed one 
another on the way, and before the above lines were 
sent Mr. Weed had. niado rapid progress. 
COMING TO TERMS. 
The argument ou the mandamus was set for the 
16th, and ou the night of the 15th Weed succeeded 
in obtaining from certain members of the Cauvassing 
Board a definite proposition, though the terms were 
higher than he had been led to expect. 
[16.1 

Columbia, Nov. 16. 
Henry Havemeyer. 15 TTest ITtli-sf., Xew-Tork. 

Too last do received answer uiglit late War.saw 
underst.and mo don't want to quite you France 
Schuylkill Thames for night to Copenhagen us 
river giving late go electors of demand L(mdon 
Dinube to the or last river Moselle river home 
think do least party shall want America to aid who 
river will are liesides I Rhine get mterctder in- 
different the what from say no something. w. 
(Use Key lU : then Kev VIII twice.) 

[Translation.] 
Telegram received too late to answer last nieht. 
Don't quite understand. Doynuwant me to go to 
home of Stearns [Fliu-idnl ? ISoard late last 
nin-Iit tleniainieal J.l.OOO dollars for 
"-iyin"- ns t«'0 o<- ti«re«' ele»-Sor!*. 'S li«^ 
rntere<'d«'r-\viU -waul sonietliiiic Itesidcs: 
tUinU ten (iJioiisand). \\ hat shall I do t Get 
no aid from Hampton party, wlio. to say the least, 
are indifferent. 

[17.) 

Columbia. Nov. 16. 
Henry Havkmeyf.r, 15 u est l~lli-xt .\tw-loik: 

France Mo.selle over man ureatesr rivi-r with am 
Ehine exertions is there lull in not here am power 
made state are chances but you where that be have 
BlHuibieuiiiiileiitKhiueto monmig m France be 
coucert success la are Afiica i the all this condi- 



tional working authority communication Europ« 
for Warsawed on act and that close and in for. s. 

{Use Kev IX twice.) 

[Translation.} 

Am confident that Florida is State where greatest 
exertions should be made. Have you man with full 
power there? Chances are not over one in twenty 
here, but am working for that one. Chamberlain, 
Killoeg and Stearns, are in close communication, 
and act m concert. The authorUy I lelegraiihed for 
this morning all to be conditional on suicess. 

Mr. Pelton replied to both these telegrams at 
once, and his answer needs not a word of com- 
ment: 

(18.) 

New- York, Nov. 16. 
Smith W^eeh, Colnmhia. 

Lima should Hudson to London be Warsaw 
willing Africa unite believe here to and if to 
it this prevent of best fix was success leave con- 
tingently France or can Chicago dependent iu 
think Russia if soil am and final March Utica 
made inclined yon on can't Jane to night open 
immediately to condition reliable Fr.ance Anna Cap- 
tain others Lieutenant exact in you that get see 
give go friends or visit our safely bands remain me 
better !>• 

(Use Key IV ; then X twice.) 
[Translation.! 

Four felejSfraius Iiere. Slionld l>e yyill- 
ingr to aceept, l>elieye, il" 4'lianil>erlain 
and Itoard unite to prgyent trading: 
and expense yyas made dependent on 
final sHoeess of Tilden iu Marcli. Am in- 
clined to think Florida best soil. If you can fix 
this contingeutlv or leave it open safely, or in reli- 
able hands, you better visit Florida immediately. 
See that our friends remain ; can't get others to go. 
Give me exact condition to-night. Captain Lieuten- 
ant Anna Jane. 

The first agreement was for two or three of the 
electoral votes, to be obtained, we perhaps, by the 
process of trading districts, hinted at in Dispatch 
No. 12. Further negotiation was necessary in con- 
sequence of Pelton's insisting that the oblig.ation 
should be made "contingent on the result in 
March." To this the Board ofiScers would not con- 
sent, but they agreed to give good measure, pro- 
vided they got prompt pay, and to turn over all the 
seven electoral votes of South Carolina instead of 
the two or three origin.ally piomised. 

[19.1 

Columbia. Nov. 16. 
Henry Havemeyer, A^o. 15 West lllh-st., A. V. 

Now bring safe river thing stuff river Warsaw 
man would as all Copenhagen to have on Warsaw 
for Schuylkill though Rochester Schuylkill receiv- 
ing river the looks at Danube Nvork received now 
LiiiKlou regular make him andit the certificates with 
I March depend of on other in on Baltimore will 
would but officers not meet think at could party 
morning that stakes to-night Thames have, and 
which but they agreed Moselle majority is sot re- 
Iiort 1 exact a consulting of will ami assented the 
London is are with and status Warsawed answer 
Warsaw to spare me go definite you no Africa but 
to to-night and soon can France late to-day see 
will and me to Portugal its for Chicago withdraw 

(Use Key IX four times.) 8. 

[Translation.] 

Telegram received, i.oolcs no-w as tIioug:h 
tlie tliins -lyould >vork at 75.000 
tlollurs. for all sev«-u yotes. Uaye safe 
man to brius stiilf ou reociying tele- 
"•rain iu iiiornins. 'I'Uinii now I yyill 
meet liiiu witU party at Italtimore. 



The Contract Closed. 



29 



C'oiild not inalio it jlepeJUl on Marcli. 
I»ut -would on res'tilsn- corsiJiOnte of 
lto:ir<l iin«l otiiei- olB<-orw. 'I'lio <'xa«-t 
KtHliiK iw tliat two ol" »lio ltosir«l lia»e 
ajarreert an«l arc «-onsnllinK' ^villi llie 
tliiiMl, Avlii<'li is a ni:i|orily, sin<I >vill re- 
port lo-niglal. Tlx'j" sot stakes an«l I 
as:scntcd, but can -tFltlidra^r. Por- 
tnial telegiaphed Ajfrioa to-day to spare no eost. It's 
late for me to t;o to Florida but will see aud telo- 
gnipli you to-night. Answer me soon and deli- 
nitelv. 

120.] 

COI.l^MBIA, Nov. 17. 
Hkxry Havkmeyer, 15 M'est lllh-sl., JSeic-York. 

Waitins its very anxiously until receipt your am 
time decision am expect Warsaw powerless im- 
portant liavolet to-day you if I will Thomas im- 
mediately and France from go go answer else- 
where to court this certainty. W. 

(Use Keys ill and VI.) 

iTr.anslation.l 
Am anxiously waiting your telepram. Until its 
receipt am powerless. 'J ime very important. Ex- 
pect decision frum court to-day. If you have cer- 
tainty elsewhere let tins go, audi will go to Flor- 
ida. Answer imniediatelv. Thomas. 

121.1 

NEW-Y.)iiK, Nov. 17. 
Smith WekI), Cohimlyia: 

Morning Jones Thames here Danube Warsaw 
Anna Thomas of Cantain speak Moselle full War- 
saw when Charles this received before left. H. 
(Use KeyV.) 

[ rranslation.] 
Telegram of 35 [words] here. Full telegram left 
before 2 this muining; speak when received. 
Thomas Charles Jones Captain Anna. 

Unfortunately this "full telegram " has not been 
found, but the nature of it may be inferred with 
perfect assurance from the alacrity of Mr. Weed's 
rejoinder; 

122.] 

Coi.ujiniA, Nov. 17. 
Henry Havkmeyer, 15 fTcst nth-nt.. Aeiv-¥ork: 

See Moselle try received perhaps Iiours parties 
Wars.aw will conditions befon^ get instantly answer 
and. S. 

(Use Key III.) 

(Translation. j 
Telegram received. [Will f] see parlies instantly, 
perhaps two hours before answer. Will try and get 
conditions. 

ON THE FAGGED EDGE. 

It is an interesting cireuinstance that althoiigli 
tbe negotiator apparently entertained no doubt of 
the " good faith" of the persons with whom he was 
dealing, he had little confidence in the value of the 
proposed purchnfc, and he constantly pressed bis 
princinals in New-York to buy elsewhere if they 
could. For one thing, he was embarrassed by the 
line of argument which the Ueir.ocratic counsel had 
adopted in the mandaams case. Since his " careful 
examination " of the votes had revealed the " des- 
perate " character of the situation, showing thnt 
Hayes was elected even on (he face of the county 
returns, the)'e ivas nothing he dreaded so much 
as that the. Court might grant the writ which 
his own party anTced for, aud prohibit the 
Bo.ard from exercising judici.al functions. 
If it did this, and the Board obeyed, 
there would be no possibility of delivering the pur- 
chased votes; aud to "change fiont in court" at 



this stage of the proceedings was not easy, even 
supposing that the lawyers, who were probably not 
aware of the secret negotiations, were willing to 
agree to it. This was a serious hitch in the arrange- 
lueut. 

123.] 

CoItTMBIA. Nov. 17. 

Hrni!Y HaVEMETKR, 15 West nth-st.. Km-York. 

Yet will have closed not act ministerially ar- 
rangements other to prevent my London which un- 
less court miiy parties com pell fear works Chili 
ot Monroe Rhine, simply left Blair certainty Ran- 
dolph with no a aud otlierwheres hope Bremen for 

PICKS. W. 

(Use Key VI., twice.) 

[Translation.] 

My parties have not closed yet. Fear Court will 
compel Returning Hoard to act ministerially, which 
mav prevent, unless other arrangtmicnt with com- 
missioners ot one county works. Press otherwlierea 
Chili, for no certainty here, simply a hope. Ran- 
dolph aud Blair left. 

The case was argued on the IGth. and on the 17th 
the Court issued an intermediary order, instructing 
the lioard to "canvass" the returns ministerially, 
in order to save time, and then to report the result 
to the Court. This was not a final decision of the 
cause; it only provided for a tabulation of the fig- 
ures as they stood, leaving open tbe question of the 
power of the board to revise and correct them. The 
work of tabulation was performed immediately, and 
showed a m.ajority for the Hayes electors ranginK 
from 230 to 1,133, the average being 800, and a mar 
jority for Hampton of 1,141. And hereupon the 
Democratic counsel did promptly "change front in 
court" aud demand that the board should be in- 
structed to go behind the returns and correct " man- 
ifest errors'" by tlie precinct reports which were in 
their possession! It was supposed that this was 
giving them just rope enough to let in Tilden but 
not enough to endanger the Democratic State ticket 
by allowing them to reject the intimidated counties 
of Edgefield and Laureus. 

The way being thus cleared. Smith Weed pushed 
his negotiations zealously. The following is not 
transposed : 

[24.] 

Columbia, r<ov. 17. 
Hknry Havemeyer, 15 West llth-at., Xeio-Tork. 

(Still hangs by the giUs. Vv'iU Warsaw [telegraph] 
later. S. 

THE CONTRACT CLO.SED. 
And then comes the long delayed announcement 
of success: 

[25.] 

CoH'MWA, Nov. 18. 
Henry HiVEMEYER.lS Jt'estllih-st.. ^\.Y.: 

IBave RItine river as is of follo-«TS Ed» 
inbiirgli i-iTer Mississippi been of Kliine 
Copeiiliageu river SSIiine Syrstcnse par- 
cel to secured I>aniEl>e Potomac river 
sent Cliicago L.oudou Edinbargh I»e 
river of Uauuke Kocliester given notes 
l>e of to America up Wanube EdinbnrgfU 
MS be upon smd land and Peters- 
burg Rliine a Jl S^ima parties of Amster- 
dam to of or Edinbiirgli tjlasgo^v Rliine 
BSussia's secure sball to-misUt packs 



so 



NetB-YorJc Tribune — Extra No. i4,—The Cipher Dispaiches. 



«Tery unless tbe try slioiild friends 
■Warsa^v you to countermanding: tliingf 
beingp receive ^vltliout tlie ine from b}' 
and Xliames to sent inscription be sT'v^en 
the tor intimidation I and Ood's tear 
ft of Itararia friends and tiieir Liondon 
and sake plan Copenbasen in of wiitcii- 
inar careful let and Africa Petersburg- 
liere force are of can'»vUetIi«-r night and 
I^rance it have done '%Tarsa>v or be to 
Copenhagen deeidetl ^iunday -will go 
readj- tliis safe Btallimorc reach be once 
in you do at Africa li^ W. 

(Use Key IX., five times.) 

[Translation.! 

Majority of Itoiird have been se- 
cured! Cost is SO.OttO, to be sent as 
follows: One pat-eel of Uo.OOO ilnl- 
lars. one of 1«,000, :iud ont^ of 
S,000; all to be five bundred or 
one thousand bills ; notes to be de- 
posited as parties accept, and giveu 
up upon vote of land of aSampton \i. e. 
State of South Carolina] being given 
to Xilden's friends. 'I'he three ]>a4-]£s 
should be sent fvithout inscription, and 
to-night, unless you receive telegram 
from lue countermanding. Shall try 
to secure everything by tlie plan ol 
deposit. Ihe friends oi Chamberlain 
and Kavaria [?1 are here in force, and I 
fear tbeir money and careful vvatcliiiig 
and intimidation of Uoard. For <>;o<rN 
sahe let it go if you can. S!e safe in 
Florida or Africa* [?]. I>o this at once, 
and have cash ready to reach ISalti- 
more Sunday night. Telegraph <lecid- 
edly whether it will be done. w. 

The answer seems to have been somewhat tardy 
but Mr. Smitli Weed made his Dreparatious to start] 
and in the meantime he telegraphed again ■ 
[26.] 

Henry Havemeyer, 15 West 17th-^^]\' r°^' ^^' 

For my result do yourself mind it definite doubt- 
ful, if B. Its sure to but must shall and say meet 
trying worth get will me to-night London they 

Srudent leave o'clock their Thames [-1 bv lowest 
lissouri change river London statiment "of Glas- 
gow of Moselle errors answer Rhine face of within 
Russia's can byracuse Rochester Mississippi on 
Greece show before. *^*^ „ 

(Use Key IX., twice.) 

[Translation.] 
Shall leave to-night for B. Meet me yourself if 
prudent. Itcturmny Hoard say tlmi uiU' do it, sure, 
and it's worth trying, but result doubtful to my 
jnind. Must get definite answer before 8 o'clock. 
Statement of votes by Returning Board sliows on 
face Hayes majority [of?] 900: one of Tilden's [elec- 
;torsl within 230 of their lowest. Errors can 
phauge. 

The majorities given in this telegram correspond 
exactly with the figures reported in the New-York 

•Possibly a slip of the pen for "America," wWcli 
■would here be understood iu the sense of South Ciiro- 
liuit. 



papers of the 19th — an agreement which m.ay be 
taken as evidence of the correctness of the keys to 
the cipher. 

No doubt Mr. Smith Weed did get the " definite 
answer" he desired "before 8 o'clock," for he broke 
out iu the following exultant dispatch : 

137.] 

Columbia, Nov. 18. 
Henry Havemeyfr, Ao. 15 II est \llh-si., A. i.: 

Have at now must you, early Monday to-niglit ten 
Baltimore go looks in morning at Coiieuhayeu 1 well 
Baruums the W. 

(Use Key VI.) 

[Translation.] 

Looks wcU now! Yon must have the money at 
Baniuiji's in B.altiiuore eaiiy Monday morning. I 
go at fen to-night. 

And he went. The New-York papers of the 19th 
of November contained a dispatch from Columbia, 
saying : 

Siuit.i Weed, who lias been Uere siuce Tuesday, look- 
ing after Tilden's intcnsts, leaves to-uiglit lor the 
Noftb. 

II. 
THE SKCOyD ACT. 
Did Mr. Smith Weed really go to Baltimore on 
this occasion ?" Did a " s.ife man" meet him there 
with "the stufl" iu three packs? If yes, w. is this 
safe man the person whom he specially requested to 
meet him "if prudent!" The foUowius; extracts 
from the holol registers answer all these questions : 
"Hotel Arrivals, Baltimore, Monday morning, 
November 20, 187G. 
" At Barniiiu's, Smith M. Weed, of New-York. 
"At the Mount Vernon House, William T. Pel- 
Tox, ot New-York." 

Botn arrived early. Colonel Pelton was accom- 
panied by a frieud, with whom, after breakfast, he 
took a carriage, and in the course of tlie day it is 
positively known that this friend was in company 
with Mr. Weed at B.irnum's Hotel. It is highly 
probable that Colonel Pelton was there too, although 
bis movements have not been satisfactorily traced. 
But that he left New-York at that critical and 
anxious time, and made a night journey to Balti- 
more in obedience to Smith Weed's request, " You 
must h.ave the money at Baruum's in Baltimore 
early Monday morning ; meet me yourself if pru- 
dent," leaves hardly a possibility of doubting that 
he took with him the $80,000 demanded for the 
" Majority of Board." It is morally certain that he 
did not go to Baltimore for the purpose of saying 
"No." 

Before leaving Columbia it was neces- 
sary for Mr. Weed to establish a system of 
communication with somebodv at the South Caro- 
lina capital, and there were obvious reasons why he 
should not trust tbe transposition cipher to any of 
the Southern politicians who were then attending 
to the aflairs of the piirty. To say nothing of more 
serious matters, that cipher might lay bare the evi- 
dences of double-dealing with respect to Hampton. 
He expected to be absent only three or at most four 
days, and no very elaborate svstem of crypt-o- 
I grapliy seemed to be necessary for so short 



IFore Frocragtination. 



31 



a time. He tlicrefoie drew iip a little vocab- 
ulary of arbitrary " substitution ciplicrs," for 
use durhiK tbo trip to Baltimore and back. It 
consisted merely of tbo adoption of .a few proper 
nouns in place of tbe " tell-tale words " be expected 
to need— not a good cipber, because it arouses sus- 
picions, and offers tbe greatest fa';ility for ebrewd 
guessing-. If the specimens of tbis code were 
numerous, tbey could be deciphered -witb 
tbo greatest ease by moans of comparisons. 
Itbappens, bowever, that tbo messaires in wbicli it 
■was used ai'e few and sbort, and with so little ma- 
terial it is impossilde to prove tbe concctiiesa ot a 
key. Tiie d spalciies, therefore, aro n:erely pro- 
geuted in eouneclioM with tl'e narrative of evenis, 
and conjectural inierpretations are oll'ircfl, of tl:e 
plausibility ot wbicli every man will judge for him- 
self. Fortunately, these messages aieiiOtofgre.it 
iinportauce. 

Who were Smith Weed's Colnrabia correspon- 
dents? They were two, and tbey signed tbeiii- 
sclves "Pops" and " Spain." Tbe most active of 
the Democratic managers at Columbia during 
these days were Colonel A. C. Haskell, chairman 
of the .State Executive Committee, and .Senator 
Gordon, of Georgia, who paid particular at- 
tention to the acts of the Canvassing Board, 
and of whom one of the local Democratic 
leaders telegraphed to Colonel Pelton, "Gordon is 
a tower of strength to us." Weed was in tcle- 
srrapbic communication witb both these gentlemen, 
and there is no indication that be te'egraphed to 
any other person at Columbia. Which was 
"Spain" and which was "Pope"t This ques- 
tion seems to be clearly enough answered 
by a dispatch in which S. W. requests 
Colonel A. C. Haskell to " Please sugar Pope and 
Bull," etc. "Pope" then was not Haskell, and it 
may fairly be inferred that he was Gordon, and 
that Il.askell was " Spain." Who "Bull " may have 
been is unknown ; but as tbis is the only reference 
to him, tbe inquiry is uot of much consequence. 

It was apparently just .after tbe meeting with 
Pelton that Mr. Weed sent the following dispatch 
to Columbia,— the earliest found in the new substi- 
tution cipher: 

I2S.J 

„ , , „ Baltimoke, Nov. 20. 

General J. B. Gordon, Columbia : 

Mat ters tea b.v London agent. Inform Spain and 
Jo news Ty, 

The moaning of "London" is known already. "Jo" 

or. 1113 a iiumtjer of times in tbe course of the 
cipher in relatious which leave no room ro doubt 
that it means " telegraph." " Tea » is a word fimnrt 
only twice, and it appears to srtand for " arranged " 
or '■ arrangement," but any interpretation which 
can be tested I.y only two instances is hardly bet- 
tar than a (fness, and hence the toiiowiug read- 
ing of the dispatch is offered, not as certain, but 
■8 highly probable : 

[Translation.! 
M.<itt*r9 arrangeil by R.'-tnrning Board agent. In- 
form Haskell and telegraph news. 



MORE PROCRASTINATION". 
But just at this moment, when the bargain seemed 
to be practically closed, procrastination and over* 
caution disarranged the whole scheme. Weed 
must have received a later communication from 
New-York, for on the same day ho telegraphed; 
again to General Gordon : 

[29.] 

Baltimore, Nov. 20. 
GenernlJ. B. Gordon, Coh(mhia : 

Have Ba(b hold on to Cuba until York or April. 
May bo little delay. w. 

By a comparison of the seven instances in which 
tbe word "B.ath" occurs, and a careful 
eoiisider.ition of the events of the days 
to which these dispatches belong. Tiik Tnusu.vt's 
interpreters aatisSi d themselves that "Bath" was. 
the South Carolina Supreme Court ; "Cuha" si-enied 
tobetlie eauvassof the electorial votes. " Yurk" 
is fouud -.nly twice, and in both instances it read* 
as it it might mean "fixed"; "April" occurs but 
twice, and is perhaps equivalent to " failure." These 
renderings of course are merely conjectural: 
fTranslation.l 

Have the court hold on to tbo electoral votes, un- 
til lixed or failure. May be little delay. 

Having dispatched this, Mr. Weed, instead of re-. 
turning to Columbia, went to New-York by the- 
night train to consult with headquarters. Tbe books. 
of Biimum's Hotid show that he left there attcrsup- 
pcr, and the books of tbe Mount Vernon House dis- 
close the fact that Colonel Peiton and his compan- 
ion returned to New- York by tbe night train. Tub 
Ti.'iBiNE annonuced among the "Prominent Arriv- 
als" in New-York during the 21st : '■ At the Fifth 
Avenue Hotel. Smith M. Weed, of Platt^burg." 

To understand the sudden change of plans it is 
necessary to see what was doing at Columbia. As 
already remarked, there was not tbe most perfect 
accord betwbeu llic Tilden party and the Hampton 
party, and the proceedings in the Supremo Court 
d id not always suit tbe secret plans of Gramerey Paik. 
On the 20fli, the power of the Board of Canvassers 
to go hebinii the returns was argued in the court, 
tlie Democratic counsel, who liad now "changed 
front" completely, according to Smilh Weed's pro- 
posal, asking for an order to conipsl tbo canva.s- 
si-rs to revise and correct their figures, but to a 
certain extent only. Tbe result of tabulating the 
returns for Presidential electors waspublicly known, 
but it biid not yet been reported to the Ccmrt, in 
complianeo with tbe order of the 17tb ; tho 
Conrt instructed tbe Board to report on 
tbe 21st, V/hile this matter remained unsettled, 
it perhaps seemed to the persons who stood behind 
Weed and PeKon in tbis transaction that if.SO.OOO 
was a large sura to pay for votes which might never 
be cast; aud it is not at all unlikely that tliey were 
tortured by doubts at the la.'it moment whether the- 
three purchased members of the Board were acting 
in "good f.aith" so Weed propo.sed that tbo 
Court, which had already u.-<iirped the authority of 
a sort of revisory Canvassing Board, should " hold 



32 



New- Fork Tribune— Extra No. 4:i—Tlic Oiplier Dispntchcs. 



onto the electoral votes" till the thing Tvas fixed, 
or till it failed. 

THE SOUTH CAROLINA COURT. 

What hidden sprinprs of action moved that autrust 
tribunal over Tvbich Chief-Justice Moses presided 
it wonld haiilly lie worth while to inquire. On the 
morning of the 21st the Canvassing liuard submit- 
ted the returns to the Court. Thev sliowed on their 
face the election of the Hayes electors and Republi- 
can State ofiiuers, with three Republican Cnnffress- 
mcn out of five, and a Lesislattire Reiniblioau 
in the Senate by three majority, and Democratic in 
the House by four majority. The Leyis.'atiure was 
to canvass the returns for Governor, and as the 
Democrats by this sliowiug bad a majority of one 
on jinut ballot, the result would be the countinij m 
of Hampton. In presenting; the returns, however 
the Ho:ird reported that the votes of ICdgeticId and 
Laurens ought to be thrown out on account of oul- 
raireous frauds and violence, and that various palpa- 
ble irrtgularitics, etc., ought to he corrected. Ihr 
consequence of doineas they recommetuled would be 
the choice of the Republican electors, and a Legisla- 
ture Republican in both branches. The extraordinary 
behavior of tue Court in this juncture is a matter of 
dilatory. It commanded the Boanl to certify the 
•election of all members of the Legislature who ap- 
peared to have the greatest number of votes on the 
face of the returns ; hui in relation to ihv chclr.ral 
licket it tnuk ilm opposite ground, ami rommonded llip 
Board to rerise and) coireat the figures ureordimi to the 
precinet returns. And it was thus that "Bath" held 
on to " Cuba." 

This order was issued on the 22d. But on the 22d 
at noon the powers of the Canvassing Board expired 
by limilation. Perceiving that the purpose of th<- 
Court was to prevent any canvass of the electoral 
vote (which would have been equivalent to giving 
the Presidency to Tilden), the Board uu-t 
on the morning of the 23d, and before the 
orders could be served it had completed 
its work, issued certificates to the Hayes 
Electors and a Republican Leirislature ( five 
Democratic Assemblymen from Edgefield ami three 
from Laurens being excluded), and then adjourned 
»iiie die, so that when tne precepts of the Court 
■were issued there was no longer a Canvassing 
Board in existence to receive them. With this suil- 
den movement, brought on by the lawyers of his 
own party. Mr. Tildeu's chance of getting the Board 
forever disappeared, and all tbe negotiations of 
Smith Weed were brought to nought. The result 
might have been very different if Tildeu's secret 
agents and the local leaders of toe South Carolina 
Democracy had not been so often at cross purposes. 
Weed no sooner reached New-York than he placed 
bimself at the end of the telegraph wire in the Ev- 
erett House he..dqnartei-s and began to send and re- 
•«ei ve cipher dispatches. The messages of " Spain " 
and " Pope" at this time seem to refer to small 
•sums of money which may have been only for legal 
■expeuBBS, although some of them have a suspicious 



look. In considering the translations, it is to be un- 
derstood that while the reading of the transposition 
and dictionary ciphers is a matter of positive demon- 
stration, these of Weed's rest only on guess-work, of 
which readers must form their own opinion. "'E 
.June" is the only cryptogram in the whole coUeo- 
t on to which an initial letter has been atflxed. It il 
a very coininon device to represent numbers by the 
liist letters of the alphabet; and if "E" in 
this case means 5, •' June " is probably " thousand." 
The dispatch, it will be observed, was written while 
the Democrats were exerting themselves to obtain 
from the action of the Court a Democratic Legisla- 
ture which would count in Hampton: 

130.) 

CiiLt'MBIA, Nov. 20. 
Smith Wif.d. care of King. Lv.rett House .V. T. : 

Send E June immediately to Sjiain. February 

rxpect to get Naples Hiuse and May: but E 

June can make Naiili-s January. This will make 
HatU all rieht. Cuba postponed. Will remain in 
B.itli and make Cuba January. Pope. 

[Translation.! 

Sd'd 5,000 immediately to Haskell. February 

f?l expect to get in;ijority House and S-enate ; 

bat 5, OHO can make majority Democratic. Tins 
will make Couit all right. Electoral canvass post- 
jiiMied ; will remain in court and make electoral 
vote Democratic. 

No. 30 it appearSjWas scntto Baltimore.and thence 
forwarded to New-York after Weed had left. 

[31.1 Columbia, Nov. 21. 
Smith WkI'D. Everett House, N. Y. : 

Pntie answered you last niglit. Send for it, Bar- 
mini's. We think Bath [Court] will close to morrow 
and put Naples [inajoritj-l in the House and proba- 
bly ac quire Cuba [electors]. Si-ain. 

THE DRY TBIE. 
When the Canvassing Board adjourned sine die in 
order to avoid !h'^ mandamus and injunction, the 
Co. lit nevertheless persisted in requiring uom 
the uiembers of it a compliance with the 
orders, although obedience was no longer in their 
power ; and it was to the threats of fine and im- 
prisonment by which Judge Moses sought to uphold 
his dignity that Pope probably refers in the fol- 
lowing: ^32 J 

Columbia, Nov. 22. 
Smith Weki>. Everett Boute, Ii\ Y.: 

Have January friends in New-Y'ork inform their 
friends by Jo iu" New-Orleans that Bath is firm and 
Cuba prospects bright. Scarcety a possiliiiity of 
April. But February and July are lioiii-less. Jan- 
uary House already secured by action in Bath. An- 
swer about E June telegram sent to Bariium's Mon- 
day. Poi'E. 
[Translation.! 

Have Democratic friends in New-York inform 
their friends by telegraph in New-Orle.ans that 
court is tirni. ami prospects of electoral vote bright, 
scarcely a possibility of failure. But Fehruary [f] 
and July [?1 are hopeless. Democratic House 
a lieady secured by action iu court. Answer about 
5 000 teleizrani sent to Bariium's Monday. 
[33.) 

Coi.uMniA, Nov. 23. 
Smith Wekd, VrrrUt House, ?• eie- York : 

Cliicauo is too iicnvv for Cuba unless Tom is sent 
to Spain. E June is -.mperatively needed to prevent 
^4pl(■s failing and involving Bath and Cuba. Jo 
Spain to Paris immediately. Pope. 



Iks Las! Phil. 



33 



[Translation.] 

Expense is too heavy for the electoral ticket, un- 
less money is sent to Haskell. Five thou?anil is im- 
peratively iiecfled to prevent niajoritv failing, and 
Involving; court and electoral vote. Telegraph Has- 
keU to draw immediately. 

It was perhaps not quite clear just yet at Grara- 
«roy Park what advantage it would be to the Re- 
forra candidate to capture the Sonth Carolina Leg- 
islature, and Mr. Wee<l was not at all prompt in re- 
plying to the request for 5,000. Hut on the 23d the 
defeated Democratic electors hrouglit an action 
against the Repuhlican electors at Columbia to de- 
termine their title lo office, and Mr. Weed's hopes 

revived : 

[34.] 
Nicw-YoRK, Nov. 24—10:30 A. M. 
Colonel A. C. Haskkll, Columbia : 

Please Riigiir Pope and Bull and Jo whether any- 
thing can bi York ro efleet Romt in London no\v. 
Tom abundant. Jo iiiimediately. s. w. 

fTranslation.l 
Please consult Gordon and liull, and telegraph 
whether anything can be fixed to etVeet victory in 
Canvassing Hoard now. Money abundant. Tele- 
graph immediately. 

[35.1 

Columbia [No date]. 
8. Wekd, li'verett House, A'. Y.: 

Sugar held. Too late. London [adjourned t word 
blotted |. Kath firm, but Tom necessary. Siud E. 
June to Spain immediately. Pope. 

i Translation.! 
. Too late. Board adjourned. 

Court firm, but money necessary. Send 5,000 to 
Haskell immediately. 

[36.] 

Coi UMBIA, Nov. 27. 
W. T. Pelton, Everett House, y. T.: 

Why don't Smith Weed answer Popef This of 
last consequence. Haskell. 

At last the answer : 

[37.] 

New-York, Not. 27. 
Colonel A. C. Haskell, Cohimhia: 

If E June can make Naples in House and York 
May, Spain can Paris as you Jo; otherwise cannot 
secure tea. 8. w. 

[Translation.] 
If 5,000 can make majority in House and fix 
Senate, Haskell can draw as you telegraphed ; other- 
wise cannot secure arrangement. 

What this "arrangement" was, will be seen in 
the next Act. 

III. 
THE THIRD ACT. 

In the dispatches between "Pope " and " Spain," 
at Columbia, and Smith Weed at the Everett House, 
the translators were compelled to abandon for a 
short time the safe ground of clear demonstra- 
tion, and to embark upon the uncertain 
sea of conjecture. They got back now to a 
solid footing, for the remaining dispatches of 
the South Carolina story are in a cipher which can 
be read according to fixed rules. There are no more 
cryptograms of the "E June" class, but the same 
"dictionary code " is employed which was used by 
Parris in Florida. 

THE LAST PLOT. 

The South Carolina Legislature met on the 28th 
of November. The excluded representatives of 



Edgefield and Laurens Counties being refused adi 
mission, all the Democratic members of the House, 
accompanied by one Republican, left the Caiital 
and oi'i:auized a House of thoirownatCarolinalTall, 
Counting the men from Edgefield and Laurens (who 
had no certificates), they numbered 64 mom- 
bers; without these they had 56; the Republic 
cans had 59; the number necessary to a 
quorum of a full house was 63. The legality of hot B 
assemblies, therefore, was in doubt. There was no 
dispute about the Senate; that stood 18 Republi-i 
cans to 13 Democrats. 

In the latter part of November Mr. Hewitt, 
chairman of the Democratic National Committee, 
published a statement that President Grant would 
recognize whichever House should obtain a quorum 
of niembere holding certificates from the Canvass- 
ing Board. This letter is probably referred to in 
the following dispatches {not in cipher), which giv« 
the first glimpse of the new Democratic plot : 

[38.] 

Columbia, Nov. 27. 
Abham S. nKwrrr. Neic-Yorh: 

Your letter of 24tli inst. received. Your sugges- 
tions will be obscrvrd. but tiie event upon which 
success depen<ls will not be effected unless aid is 
given. See Senator Gwin, and answer by telegraph 
to-day. Every hour is important. If you concur, 
telegraph me at once uffirinatively. 

A. C. Haskell. 

[39.] 

„ Nov. 27. 

Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, jYcto- Forifc ■■ 

Consult Dr. Gwin about his dispatch, and answer 
if 1 can act on it. Wade Hampton. 

[40.1 

,„ COLUMBLi, Nov. 27. 

W. T. Pklto.v. Everett House, New-York .■ 

Hewitt's letter. 24th, to Haskell received. Pro- 
gramme suggested is being followed. The eontin- 
grncy on which this turns <iepends itself on sug- 
gestions made by Gwin some days ago. Can wo 
act it immediately f Consult, and answer without 
delay. J. B. Gordon. 

^*^*l New-York. Nov. 27. 
Generals. B. Gordon, Columbia: 

What was suggestion of Dr. G.t No one here 
knows, and he has left. s. w. 

The public docs not know what the suggestion of 
Dr. Gwin was, because the answer to this telegram 
of Mr. Smith Weed has not been found ; but the 
" programme " was speedily unfolded. It was, 
1. To buy enough members of the Re- 
publican Legislature to make a quorum in 
the opposition body. 2. With the Democratio 
Legislature thus obtained, to count in Hampton 
and the whole Damocratio Stal« c^veinment. 
3. To inaugurate these officers by tho 
aid of the rifle-clubs, m spite of any op- 
position by the Federal authorities. 4. By- 
means of the Democratic State government to 
declare the Hayes electors intruders, and issue a 
pew set of certificates to the Tildon electors. 5. To 
attack the title of the Hayes electors also in tho 
State court, and either force them to recognize the 
iurisdiction of that tribunal, in which case they 
would be enjoined from acting, or in case of their 
refusal to recognize it to imprison them for contempt 



yi 



is'ew 



-York Tribune— Extra No. ii—The Cipher Lispafches. 



nrU keep the>n locked nf m>Hl the day for Ihe voliiw 
KMM over. 

FUN AT THE FAIR. 

Preparations for this complicated series of opera- 
tions were made with all speed. The court issued 
an order to the Hayes electors to show cause why 
thcv should not he enjoined from acting, and made 
it returnable ou the afternoon of the 5th of De- 
cember, the very day appointed by law for the elec- 
tors to meet and organize. The nfle-cluhs were 
called toeether, and as a preliminary to their as 
semhling Wade Hampton sent the following re- 
markable telegram : 

1-12.1 

Cot UMBIA, Dec. 2. 
Eon. Ar.HAM S. Hi.v,-itt. Neiv-Yorlc : 

We apprehend further niihtary mterfoi-ence. 1 ro- 
tests from other Stato Legislatures would stren atheii, 
in ease you get them to act promptly. 1 ul)lie meet- 
ings will aid. Wa de Hamp rox. 

COLLMBIA, Dec. 2. 
■R. H. Kknwedt, r, rcenriVc, f!. C: 

Fun expected at the Fair this week. Prepare tor 
higlispi.rf. Lot best hoys come, but not too many 
unless well heeled. V. E. McBee. 

144.1 
James Ai-i.f.s, Florence, .">. C: 

Send up to-nigbt all the right men possible. In- 
auguration m;iy take place to-morrow. If ritles can 
be concealed, tring them. Don't wait till to-mor- 
row evening. Come to State Fair ostensibly. 

E. G. HOIVAKD. 

Columbia, Dec. 3. 
W. L. Mafldin, Grccntille : „ , 1 1 4^1 » 

You imist go to Spartanburg. I will hold that 
train fur you. Be ready at 12 o'clock to take Air 
Line train. V. E. McBee. 

146.] 

Columbia, Dec. 3. 
W. L. JIacldin, fircenriWc..- „ , , , 

1 havi- tehgraiihc.l Cagle too. Perhaps yon had 
better lonsolidato men. Extra tri'.iii may leave 
Greenville to-night. Bring best men and tool-chest 
to Fair. V. E. McBee. 

[47.1 

Doc. 3. 
'Gen. James Conneti. Charleston: 

The Hunkadori Club on tlie way hercfnrarow 
to-morrow. See Pickens, and delay tram tili even- 



ing. 



Wade Hampion. 



148.1 



Dec. 4. 
■N. A. Huffman, Ko. 9 German-sl., Baltimore: 

Send John Agnow by express twelve :'>2 and six 
38 pistols. Great excitement. Full plnte. 

Arthur Lmdrt. 

And General James Conner, the Democratic can- 
didate for Attornov-General, and leading counsel 
for his party in the Canvassing Board cases, added 

the following : 

[49. J 

CnAi;LEST0N, Dec. 3. 
Major J. G. Baker, Columbia : 

Have modified my views about electoral vote. 
The course Hampton suggests is, I fear, necessary. 

James Conner. 

The newspaper dispatches at the time described 
the sudden gathering of armed men which followed 
these calls. 



COLONEL PELTON TAKES A HAND IN THE 
GAME. 
The news of these proceedings reached Gr.imercy 
P.ark at a most exciting time. Woolley had just 
telegraphed trom Tallahassee (Dec. 1) the offer of 
the Flonda Returning Board for " half of a hundred 
thousand didlars,'' and Colonel Pelton had accepted 
it. Mr. Marble had transmitted (Dee. 2) the ex- 
travagant hid of $200,000 for the same ar- 
ticle, and had been told that it was 
too high. Patrick had concluded the negotiation 
for the purchase of a Republican elector in Oregon, 
and Mr. Pelton had given him notice (Dec. 2) 
that he had " deposited the eight as directed." But 
the plot at Columbia was anxiously watched, and 
the business of buying a few memhers of the Legis- 
lature—which was an essential part of the 
scheme— was really managed at Gramercv Park. 
About the 1st of December a confidential man was 
sent to Cnlunibia, witli Webster's "Pocket Dic- 
tionary " in his hand, and the following correspond- 
ence took place. The first dispatch is translated by 
turning h.ack three pages in the "Pocket Dic- 
tionary " : 

[30.1 

Columbia, Dec. 3. 
Col. W. T. Pelton, Erercti House. N. Y. : 

Cry caudalers roughs greengrocer ridgean en- 
lightens maul these blackened ingress and that 
resource proboscis roughs yeoman enjny siege 
diaphanous enlightens it is fanurd sliip- 
wriglit m.ay usury with ridgcan iiubosom and 
inestimable prophet gust navel may chess 
mote which cubes cater retrieve Hamp- 
ton's nn dikes upon coruscate of shipwright 
eidlar gallantry wents inseparable farm to recusant 
ill Kir p niiexp'eeted and henceforwaril transfuses 
frallauuy tournament duplicity's if yon geometry 
iuMcli antithesis navel nautn/al myth to be roughed 
if venesection nitrate bocni-pociis apimrtenanee to 
obstruct this dismantled by garnishes. Please ac- 
knowledge receipt forthwith. F. 
(Translation.) 
County canvassers' ri turns give Republican elec- 
tors uu'.jontv ; thi-.se believe incorrect, and that 
regular Di'ec'inct returns will elect several Demo- 
cratic ereetois. It is expected Senate may unite 
with Kepublican House and inaugurate present 
Governor nionow. May cause mischief which 
eour!s cannot remedy. Hampton's triumph 
depends upon contiugeney of Senate eap- 
tiiir ; IVmr votes iu«l«BiicM>*J»l>!e. Ex- 
pi><-t t«> rJJiso iit Sisite t^vioc siml half 
tames lour «l>o»»ssi«»«l «1«IIjh"s. if you i'lir- 
11 [..Si liKe aiiioiiiil iiiorro^v luorning;; 
money to l>e i-c i «i rued il" iinsuccessliil. 
Must have answer to-night. Tins dictated by triend 
Please acknowledge receipt lurtliwith. F. 
(The next is translated by turning hack four 

^^-^"' [51.1 

Columbia, Dec. 4. 
W. T. Pelton, Everett House, \ew- York • 

Literati oligarchy rook inelUcient if not whence 
Hewitt's drear troin alley reprobate palanquin im- 
perishable with lottery reduolicato with century 
broach cits evaporated dints curly olLce occlusions 
were shattered obsession paregoric imbricated when 
dints lot chagrin to publish samphire othce re- 
ouires wormed immaculate repeat for imperishable 
cowarding in paregoric hilarious. Telegram to Vau 

received. '• 

(Translation,) 
Last night's roquest important if not vitaL 



Colonel Pelton takes aEandin the Gam*. 



3S 



iHevritt'a dispatch. President will recognize only 
IHouse with legal quorum with Canvassing Board 
^certificates, encouraged Democrats. Couple new 
negroes were seen necessary other House. When 
(Democrats left Capitol to prevent riot, new r-- 
cruit« wavered ; hope recapture for House conven- 
ing in other Hall. J elegram to Van received. F. 

Twenty thousand dollars is a large sum of money 
in South Carolina, and its use in capturing four 
Senators Ls nut at all ambiguous. Hero is Colonel 
Pel ton's re plj': 

[52.1 

Nf.w-York, Dec. 4. 
'To v., care A. C. Haskkll, Columbia •■ 

Doubloon relinquary yeoman duct audience 
righteous of it yeooiau sextuple siege enlightens 
afterwards purlieu. 

(Turn back three pages.) 

[Translation.] 

I>ispa.tcli reofivcd. ^Vill do as re- 
quesited it' it -will $>eciire several elec- 
tors. Act promptly 

153.1 

Nf.w-York, Dec. i. 
To F. or A. C. Haskell, Columbia! 

Your last not clear ; words 10, 12, 13, 18, 21, 24, 
28, 32, 41, 44, make no sense. Yours of last night 
was answered immediately in aiiBrmative. Gel itand 
act upon it. Answer immediately and full. 

On Tuesday, the 5th of December, the day before 
the liual vote, two very important orders in the 
legal part of the plot were to come before Judge 
Moses's court. The first was the return to the writ 
of quo warranto by which it was intended to eject 
the Hayes electors (provided the four votes 
could be obtained in the Senate) ; the sec- 
ond was a writ of mandamus to take 
the returns of the vote for Governor and Lieutenant 
(Jovernor out of the hands of the Speaker of the 



Republican House, and give them to the Speaker of 
the Democratic House. The management of both, 
these affairs was dictated from Gramercy Park. 
[54.] 

New-York, Dec. 4. 
To F., care A. C. Haskell, Columbia : 

Independence lanch on reckon wildfire bevy osse- 
ous [t] if pains to devour peat assert 

to outrii-'ht bevy dormouse incommode cou- 
federate for corporoai or it balcony the fal 
low of barb carcass niiscalcjlate bailor for corporeal 
promise bisect and i-stiin:Ue immolate would bevs 
asphyxia would bevy humane to ludi-pose them 
sliot "embezzle woman anecdote pry dike on your 
strip literati omnifarious unswathe lassitude u« 
alliance. [No sig.l 

(Turn back three pages.) 

[Translation.] 

Important judge on quo warranto be obtained 
• • • If order to deliver paoer appurtenance to 
office [i. e., the returns! he disobeye_d, im- 
mediately commit for contempt, or if Itha 
electors! attempt the exercise of authority by- 
meeting, attach for contempt. Prepare beforehand, 
and enforce immediately would be appropriate. 
^Vonld be liumane to imprison tl»ep* 
separately during Wednesday. All do- 
pemls on your State. Let nothing undo. Keep 
us advised. 

Here, with this attempt to seize by foroa 
of arms and the usurped authority of a shame- 
less court the high oftice which they had tried m 
four States to buy, the Reformed Democracy may be 
left to the judgment of history. The South Car- 
olina scheme at last fell to the ground becauge 
the one part necessary to give validity to all the rest 
was not obtained. The four votes wanted in the 
State Senate could not be bought; the eventful day 
came ; the Republican Senate stood firm ; and the 
votes of the seven electors were duly cast on the 
6th of December for Hayes and Wheeler. 



THE OREGON TELEGRAMS, 



The Operations of J. N. H. Patrick akd Senator Kelly. 



BUYING AN ELECTOR. 



Yomigmenl will you mark these wrong-doers of 1876 with the indignation of a betrayed, wronged and sao- 
riflcedpeoplel |A voice: •• You bet we will."|-|9AM0EL J. Tilden. Speech at Gramerey Park. 

It is a greater crime against mankiod than the usurpation of Dec.2, 1851.depicted by the Ulustrious pen of Victor 
Hugo. Tne American people will not condone it under any pretext or for any purpose.-[SAiHiEt, J. Tildejj. 
Speech at Gramercy Park, Oct. 27, 1877. 

The plot of the Democratic managers in Oregon was to create a Tilden Electoral CoUege 
after the election, by causing Governor Grover to issue a certificate to one Democrat 
(Croniu) who had not been elected, in the place of one of the Republican electors who was 
said to be ineligible. Cronin was then to develop himself into a full Electoral College by 
" filling vacancies " in his own body, and was to cast the single vote which Mr. Tilden 
needed in order to become President. But, for the success of this plan it was necessary that 



S6 



New- York Tribune— Extra No. 4A—T1ie Cipher I>ispatches. 



one of the two Kepablican electors who held regular certificates should be bribed to 
recognize and act with Cronin. To secure this, one J. N. H. Patrick was sent to Oregon^ 
He corresponded with Colonel Pelton by means of a " Dictionary Cipher," the book used 
being the "Household English Dictionary " published by T. Nelson & Sons, London, and 
the translations made by turning forward four pages. Patrick announced that he could 
" purchase one Republican elector for $5,000, and Colonel Pelton having assented to the 
arrangement, the money was deposited in a New- York banking house, and transferred by 
telegraph to Salem, where it was received on the very day of the casting of the vote, but 
too late to be available. The cause of the delay is explained in the following corres- 
pondence : 



TEB CASE OF OREOON. 

start that Oregon had 

On November 9, two 

Governor Grover tele 

Eerald, and to a num- 



It was certain from the 
been carried for Hayes. 
days after the election, 
graphed to The Xew-Jork 

ber of persons in California and elsewhere, 
in almost identical words, " Oregon has gone 
for Hayes by over 400." To one J. Teal in San 
Francisco he telegraphed: "Oregon certain for 
Hayes and Uick Williams." Mr. Pelton sent word 
to A. Nolter, editor of a Democratic paper in Port- 
land, that Tilden was nevertheless elected ; but 
trouble soon began to appear, and in the course of 
the same day some of the Democratic politicians 
frankly confessed that Hayes was elected unless 
Oregon could be added to the Democratic column. 
The chairman of the Democratic National Com- 
mittee telegraphed as follows : 

ll.l 

New-York, Nov. 9. 
To Governor Grover, Salem : 
Send us report of your State. Result of election 



may depend on your vote. 
[2.] 

Abram S. Hewttt, Keie-Toik 
Oregon Republican by 400. 
lesult. 

(3.1 



Abkam S. Hewitt. 
Salem, Nov. 9. 

Give us first decisive 
L. F. Grover. 

Salem, Nov. 9. 



Abram S. Hewitt, A'ewi-rorfc; 

Inform me immediately number electoral votes 
Tilden has, and prospects. L. F. Grover. 

t4.J 

Salem, Nov. 10. 
W. T. Pklton, Neto-Tori : 

Telegraph the first news making Tilden's election 
certain ; anxiously waiting. L. F. Grover. 

And then followed this ingenuous message (un- 
signed), which suggests that Governor Grover was 
thought to be talkiug too much for the good of the 
party: 

fS.I 

New-York, Nov. 10. 
Bon. A. J. Brvant, Mayor, San Francisco : 

Caution Governor Oregon immediately not to ex- 
press any opinion as to result in that State. It is 
evidently very close. 

Governor Grover thereupon seems to have become 
80 cautious that even his party friends could not 
extract .in opinion from him. The following impa- 
tient message is rather comic when read by the light 
of the previous one: 



[6.1 



St. Louis, Nov. 13. 
Governor Grover, Salem : 
Do send something definite immediately. 

Senator Bogy. 

S. HUTCllINS. 

The plan for the capture of an electoral vote for 
Tilden in Oregon was developed in a dispatch troin 
Mr. Hewitt to Governor Grover, on tlio 15th of No- 
vember. One of the Republican electors, John W. 
Watts.jwas disqualified to serve, because at the time 
of the electiou he was postma.ster at Lafayette, iu 
Yam Hill County. He obviated the difficulty by 
resigning his Federal appointment, and subsequently 
the other electors chose him, as the law empowered 
them to do, to fill the vacancy in the electoral body 
caused by his previous disability, that disability lie- 
iugnow removed. The Democratic managers in New- 
York, however, proposed to Governor Grover that he 
should assume the authority to withhold the certi- 
ficate from Watts, and grant it instead to one of 
the defeated electors on the Tilden ticket, 
who would then proceed to cast the one 
vote which Mr. Tilden needed ; and this was to be 
done in spite of the fact that in Oregon, accord- 
ing to the laws of that State, it was 
not the Governor but the Secretary of 
State who had to canvass the returns and declare 
the result. In suggesting this plan to Governor 
Grover, Mr. Hewitt only stated the strongest legal 
arguments he could find in support of such an extra- 
ordinary and inequitable coarse. It does not ap- 
pear that he contemplated the corrupt tinnsaetious 
afterward found necessary to give validity to the 
Governor's action, nor is any reference found to him 
in the cipher business. Mr. Hewitt disappeared 
from the correspondence before there was any ques- 
tion of bribery. 

As soon as the Oregon plan was devised, a tele- 
gram was sent to Seuator Kelly (who had st.arted for 
the East) requesting him to go back on account of 
urgent business, and at the same time Colonel Pel- 
ton asked Dr. George L. Miller, of Omaha, a member 
of the Demiirratic National Committee, to proceed 
at once to Oregon, and assist in the work. Miller 
could not CO, but he sent Mr. J. N. H. Patrick. 

|7.i O.MAii.i, Nov. 19. 

W. T. Pk.t.tox, Gramercy /'ark. yeu'-York : 

Will send better man first train. 1 1:4.") a. m.. to a 
(.elegrapli oliice. Geo. L. Mlu^gr. 



Purchas'mg an Ehctor. 



87 



[8.1 

Omaha. Nov. 19. 
W. T. Pfltoh, Grameraj I'aik, Xew-York : 

My going out of question. Man gone with anthor- 
ity to open letters and telegrams at Kalem. Trust 
me for outcome. Geo. L. Milli' r. 

The scheme of operations seems to liave been 
arranged at Portland, after a cousultation between 
the Governor, Mr, C, B. Hellinger, chairman of the 
State Executive Committee, Senator Kelly, Patrick, 
and others. As a preliminary it was determined to 
purchase the support, or at least the silence, of the 
principal Kepnblican paper, Ihe Orcgonian, by en- 
gaginff tbe Editor as "counsel" for the Democratic 
managers, at a fee of $3,000, although there were 
several eminent Democratic lawyers who stood 
ready to attend to whatever legal business might 
arise without any compensation at all. Then it was 
deemed necessary to bribe one of the Republiean 
electors to recognize and act with the man whom 
tbe Governor intended to appoint. 'Ihis was the 
point upon which the who'e plot hinged, and to 
this Mr. Patrick, who had a keen eye for business 
devoted himself without an hour's unnecessary 
delay. He received encouragement at the start 
from a gentleman in New-York whose name will be 
met with later in connection with the deposit of 
tbe money. 

19.J 

New- York, Nov. 27. 
J. N. H. PArniCK: 

Secure your point at all hazards. Communicate 
with me immediately, giving prospects. Davis. 

Mr. Patrick lost no time in establi.shing the code 
of cipher which played 80 large a part in the crisis 
of the negotiations, and his first use of it stated the 
conditions of the b.argain he had concluded with al- 
most brutal frankness. 

[IC.J 

Portland, Nov. 28. 
W. T. Pelton, ^ew^York: 

By vizier association innocuous to negligence 
cunning minutely previously readmit doltish to 
purchase afax act with cunning alar sacristy un- 
weighed afar pointer tigress cuttle superannuated 
syllabus dilatoriness misapprehension contraband 
Kountzo bisculous tup usher spiniferous. Answer. 

J. N. H. Patrick. 

I fully indorse this. James K. Kelly. 

ITranslation.l 

Certificate will be issuea to one Democrat. Must 
piirclinse Kepul>li<-nn eleoloi- to i-t'cog-. 
nize iiud act witli I>einoor:it and seciii-e 
TOte ami prevent trouble. Deposit ten 
thousand dollars my credit Knuutze Brothers, 
12 Wall-st. Answer. J. N. H. Patkick. 

I fully indorse this. James K. Kelly. 

But it occurred to him at the same time that the 
Republicans might possibly imitate the trick and 
neutralize all his efforts by capturing an elector in 
some Democratic State. Anxious to be reassured 
on this point before he risked money on what 
might turn out to be worthless, he telegraphed at 
once to Pelton: 

tU.l 

Portland, Nov. 29. 
W. T. Pet.ton, Xew-Tork: 

, Vizier we latch alb doltish hothouse conceded cnn- 
tning sojourners. Answer. p. 

I'lrauslation.] 

Will we lose any Democrat in conceded Demo- 
cratic States f Answer. 



Pelton answered both Jlr. Patrick's dispatchei 
at once. He told him there was no danger of losing 
a Democratic elector. As for the bribe, he did not 
wish to nay in advance ; but otherwise the proposal 
met with his entire approval : 

[12.] 

Xew-York, Nov. 29, 
J. N. H. Patrick, Portlavd : 

Moral hasty sideral vizier gabble cramp by hem- 
istic welcome licentiate musketeer compassion 
neglectful recoverable hothouse live innovator 
brackish association diue afar idolater session 
hemislic mitre. 

[Tr.mslalion.] 

]\o. Ilo^r soon tTill <jiovernor decide 
certifi«-j«l«'? Jl" yon iiinUe obligation 
<-ouliii;;ent on result in .llarch it can 1>e 
iloiie and incrcniable slig^litly il' neces- 
sary. 

In this dilemma Patrick applied to Dr. Miller for 
the use of bis iuliueuce in persuading Pelton to pay 
cash promptly. Miller used a difterent dictionary 
from that employed in the New- York correspond- 
ence; but the cipher seems to have been arranged 
on the same plan as the other, and is so plainly 
tr.anslated by the first live words of the next dis- 
patch that it is unnecessary to seek for the book by 
which it was made. 

113.1 

Portland, Nov. 29. 
Dr. George L. Miller. Cmaha : 

Telegraph Pelton, Mordant dispensation washing 
horrid arabesque promptly. What news? p. 

[131-2.1 

Omaha. Neb., Nov. 29. 
W. T. Pelton, Gramercy Park, A. T.: 

Do whatever our friend os-fcx pronqylli/. On a still 
hunt in Nebraska, which you will hear from. 

Geo. L. Miller. 
Patrick, in the meantime. Bent the following an- 
swer to Colonel Pelton's inquiry, and reiterated his 
demand for cash in advance : 
[Ul 

Portland, Nov. 30. 
W. T, Pelton, iVo. 15 Gramercy Park. J\cw-Fork: 

Gabble achromatic reject waggle refrangible 
vizier innocuous by tit swing a sacerdotal readmit 
sympathize hemistic by innocuous taster hepatical 
cunning cazique afar extaucy uninvited thus 
crimps action of gabble negligence doltish minutely 
association o'er taster purchase cunning taster 
sacrist license graduation drive sympathy disunite 
neif re.admit operatic march jaundiced excitable 
sympathy syllabus vizier subservient eyeservice 
syllabus nor readmit doltish minutely proposal 
medicine brazen licentiate excitable compassion re- 
taliation ridicule. Kelly and Bellinger vizier act 
cipher suscitaie minutely act prayerbook. 
[Translation.] 

Governor a'l right without reward. Will issue 
certificate I'uesday. Th's a secret. Pepublicans 
threaten, if certificate issued, to ignore Democratic 
claim and fill vacancy, thus defeat action of 
Governor, (hie elector vimi J>e paid to recorimze Demo- 
crat to secure majority. Have employed three 
[lawyers] Editor oulv Republican paper as one 
lawyer ; fee $3,000. Will take $."), 000 /or L'cpiihlican 
elector. Must raise money ; can't make fee con- 
tingent. Hail Saturday. Kelly and Bellinger will 
act. Cipher them. Must act promptly. 

Governor Grover promptly confirmed the state- 
ment of Mr. Patrick by his notorious cipher dis- 
patch to Mr. Tilden; 



38 



New-Iorl: Tribune— Extra No. 4:^~The Cipher DiepaUhes. 



(15.1 

Portland, Dec. 1. 

Samukl J. TlLDHN. 15 Gramcrcij I'ark, .\cii'-io;A-; 

Heed scantiness cramp emerge iieroratior. liot- 
lioiise survivor l)ro\vze of p>a mater doltisli lio'- 
tiousc cxactiies.'; of survivor highest eumnng doltish 
afar galvruiic survivor hy accordiimlv Doglectful 
merciless of senator incougriient coalesce. 

Gabble. 
[Translation.] 
I shall decide every jjoint ui the ease of post office 
elector in favor of the highest Democratic c'.eetor, 
and grant the certificate accordingly on nioriiing ot 
6th instant. Confidential. GovEKNOi:. 

There has been some difficnlty in uuderstauuing 
why Colonel Peltou, who w.is so ready in his assent 
to Patrick's first pmiiosals, should have hesitated, 
when it came to the point, about depositing the 
modest sum of money demanded in Oregon to make 
his uncle Prcsideut. But recent disclosures have 
cleared up what was obscure. It was on the day of 
this message from "Gabble" (Dec. 1), 1" r, Wool- 
ley telegraphed from lallahassee his faiM ofier of 
the Florida Eeturning Board for " half of a liundred 
thousand dollars"; and it was on tlie same day that 
Colonel Pclton replied " will deposit dollars agreed; 
cannot, however, draw before vote of member re- 
ceived." On that memorable 1st of December, too, 
Colouel Peltou learned that "Moses" was "making 
propositions to the enemy" in Florida; a piece 
ot intelligence confirmed the next day by 
the " Bolivia " forwarded by Mr. Marble, 
" to hand over at any hour required Tilden decision 
ot Board, and certificate of Governor for $200,000." 
On the 1st of December, likewise, the final scheme 
for the purchase of " four Senators," and a " couple 
new negroes" in South Carolina, as a preparation 
for the forcible ousting and imprisonment of the 
Hayes electors, was well under way. While these 
large operations impended it probably seemed like 
a waste of money to speud 5:8,000 in Oregon for 
what at oest was only a doubtful chance of throw- 
ing the contest fortlie Presidency into Congress. 
And so Jlr. Peltou still held the purse half shut. 

[IC.l Nkw-Youk, Dec. 1. 

J. N. H. Patrick. /'()///iii/(! ; 

Brazen welcome sanative sisterhood magnanimity 
afar compound juggler bombardment tit :>i:ir dolor- 
ous doltish niitie eiiew watch association o'er Sagit- 
tarius pmtnl notice sojcmio summons welcome com- 
missaiy gabble afar sanable aggregate. 
[Translation. 1 
Can't you send sincial messenger and convene 
Legislature by Tuesday, and elect electtor Necessary 
expense \vou":d be paid. See iirnceeilings other 
States. Telegrapli yourself; consult Governor and 
Senator. Answer. 

The next two dispatches .ire important b: cause they 
refute the pretence that th.^se first proposals of Pat- 
rick's were rejected at Gramerey I'ark, and t hat the 
money afterward sent to Oregon was inti-nded only 
for legitimate legal expenses. It will be seen tliat 
Patrick fully explained what the funds were needed 
for, and the rea'lrr will observe the precision with 
■which Colonel I'ellon laysdown ll.o conditious upon 
which it is to be paid : 

[17.] 

PoUTLAXi), Dec. 1. 
W. T. Pklton. Crnmricy I'ork : 
Moveless tamarind taster compound juggler brack- 



ish limit.atiou with filth syllabus at pliers minutely 
graduation innovator medicament buzzards gradu- 
atiou Charles Dinion, 11.5 Liberty-st. summong 
innovator taster boatman argosy Salem swing 
vizier sacrist cunning uuwcighed achromatic am- 
iiiguously at warm grout brazen erratic. tJan do no 
more. Sail morning. Answer Kelly in cipher. 
[Translation.] 

Not time to convene Legislature. Can mnnngc xinth 
I'mir thouHandat present. Mnut ttaveit JSamtinj ceiliiin. 
Have Charles Dimon, 11.5 Liberty-st.. te'eijrapb 
it to Bush, hanker, Salem. J his will centre UenW' 
cratic role. All are at work here. Can't fail. Can 
do no more. Sail morning. Answer Kelly in cipher. 

The four thousand mentioned in this dispatch 
was evidently in addition to the money required for 
the " pjditor only liepublican paper," and Colonel 
Pelton so understood it, for the next day, having 
determined to make sure of a vote wherever he 
could, he telegraphed as follows : 

[18.] 
New-York, Dec. 2, 1876—8:30 A. M. 
J. N. H. Patrick, Fortland : 

Cuttle doctrinal for consectary excitable anarch 
definable sweep abhorred welcome at welken hall, 
Treutals movables taster associating unhorsed 
twinkle sweep brook oats amphibolous purchase 
cunning doltish afar dispirit ligulate his unweighed 
taster iinrestraiued pinnious. 

[Translafiim.j 
I>epoiiiit [ed ?] cigflit lor counsel fee as 
directed. They advised yon at yonr 
home. Understand not to be used un- 
less they carry out arrangement, re«'og-- 
nize Oemocratic elector, and duly twr- 
^varil his vote to Vice-President. 

Several days before this, Mr. C. E. Tilton, of the 
Liberty-st. house, telegraphed to Mr. A. ^ush, the 
banker at Salem : " Use all means to prevent cer- 
tificate ; very important;" and Mr. Bush now sent 
the following disp.atch, before the intelligence that 
the " eight" had been deposited reached him : 
119.1 
Sai.km, Dec. 2-11:50 A. M. 
C. E. TlLTOX, 115 T.ibertij-st.. A'ew-YorTc : 

Sable. Can myriad [ten thousand] be had for s«&- 
Ject m(i/(er if needed t A. Bush. 

The fact is Colouel Pelton had procrastinated 
too long, and the deposit was useless. Mr, 
Patrick left Portland in the morning, and 
when the "eight for counsel fee" was transferred by 
telegraph to his bankers in Salem, he w.as already on 
the way to San Francisco, and the money could not 
be drawn. Mr. Pelton seems to have been some- 
what uneasy at getting no acknowledgment, so he 
telegraphed again the same day : 
[20.1 

Nicw-YoRK, Dec. 2. 
J. IV. H. Patrick : 

Brazen treutals sail morning hothouse irritate 
welcome scrub radicate valuation amphibolous 
summons irritate monkey rider unhorse nauseous 
veto inmost model sanative welkin summoner taster 
intei vert Everett harshly. w. 

I rranslatioi;.] 
Can't iiTidsrstand "sail nioniing" in yonr last. 
Y.iii should remain. Il'as urraniirmciit liUijrajihed 
hist niiiht salisfiiclory? Use otiieial (!v f] wliar, is 
luedtul. Sena your telegram to King, Everett 
House. 

Still getting no answer, Peltou telegraphed to 
Senator Kelly: 



TIte Money is jilisJirected. 



39 



121.] 
New-IoEK, Dec. 2 — 4:45 P. M. 
Eon. J. K. Kblly : 

Summons P. irritatp. monkey afar tautology gradu- 
ation moral ratiociiiat-ou has be joy aggregate. 
Crranslatiou.] 

Telegraphed P. last lught and to-day. Have uo 
" teply. Has he left ? Auswer, 

Senator Kelly's reply showed the state of the 
case: 

[22.] 
POHiLA.VD, Dec. 2— 5:3 J p. M. 
W. T. Pklton: 

Hoop taster compound juggler joy attenuate snra- 
moner amplitude brazen uiscouteut survivor dot- 
triual cuttle Charles Dimou 115 Li bcrty-.st. taster 
niveous Bush & Ladil ."^aleui miuutegnn graduation 
innovator medicament br:izen tientals intervert 
Everett harshly irritate welkin summoiier. 

K. for p. 
[Translation.] 

Impossible to convene Leaislature. P. left before 
telegram arrived. Can't draw the eight. Deposit 
Charles Dimon, 115 Liberty-st., to onhr Busli & 
Ladd, Salem. Must have it Wonday. Can't undei- 
Btand "intervert Everett harshly '—last your tele- 
gram. 

Seiiatiu' Kelly complains that he cannot under- 
Btaud three words of Feltou's telegram. This illus- 
trates a diflicnlty often experienced by some of the 
persons who used the dictionary cipher, in conse- 
quence of an unavoidable defect in that system 
which they did not understand. 'Ihe word " inter- 
vert " in the cipher stands for " King," which was 
the name of the clerk wlio translated dispatches at 
the Democratic heailquarters. The sender of the 
message, when ho turned it into cipher, looked for 
the word King iu his dictionary, and found it to be 
the sixtieth word iu the first column of page lO'J. 
In acccirdance with the rule, he then went to the 
tirst column of page 105 to tiud the cipHer equivalent, 
but that column coataiiis only tifiy-eight words. 
and the sixtieth, " intervert." accordingly comes in 
the secimd line of the second column. When Sena- 
tor Kelly tried to translate the cipher back into 
plain English, he naturally turned from " inter- 
vert " 111 the second column of page 105 to the cor- 
responding place on page 109, and there he found 
not •' King " but " kiss." 



[23.1 
Ni 



SKW-YoRK, Dec. 2, 1876. 
Received at San Francisco, 2d, 12:10 a. m. 
Eon. JaS. K. Keixy, I'orlland : 

.•-nmmons grouse P's aehuable off well featherbed 
empiric avant brazen calender innovator grouse 
mowing vibration vizard P psalmody daw veto 
Bcaotiness association dme aggregate. 

iTranslatiou j 
„__ '.'a direction. Paid yesterday, 

following'esactly behest. Can't change it here now. 
VVnen will P. reach destination t What shall be 
done ? AnsTver, 

[24.] Portland, Dec, 3. 
W. T. Pelton : 

P vizier association at Gr,and Hotel San Francisco 
medicament association Salt Lake City sympathy 
countless swallow graduation taster bedaub medi- 
cine neglectful misapprehension immixable recol- 
lection inextinguishable welcome brackish ratan 
innovator. K, 

frranslation.l 
P. will be at Grand Hotel, San Francisco, Monday: 
be at Salt Lake City three days thereafter. Have 
to borrow money on my individual responsibility in 
irost you can repUce it. 



Here was the explanation of the whole difBcultyi 
The money was lying in bank at Portland subjecl 
to the order of Patrick, and Patrick had gone to 
San Francisco, leaving matters in the hands of Sen- 
ator Kelly, who of course could not touch the funds 
which were denosited iu another man's name. 
|25.j 

New-York, Dec. 3. 
-ffoji. Jajies K. Kellt: 

Summons grouse fuddle accession welcome scanti- 
ness assiii-ia'iion quiutessence d'.flferent moveable! 
erratic achromatic honeymoon abhor pounce. 
[Translation.] 

Telegraph here. Go ahead. You shall be reim-' 
bursed. JJo not fait. All iiuportuitt. Advise pro-; 
gress. 

Then Colonel Pelton hurried to get at Patrick id 

San Francisco : 

[2G.] 

Nr.w-Y'ORK, Dec. 4. 
J. N. H. Patrick, G-rand Hotel, San P)-anci':co : 

Matter.^ fixed here just (I8 you first directed. Commu^ 
niiute Willi your friends there so they can act promptly.. 
Answer. 
And Patrick replied next day: 
[27.] 
San Francisco, Dec. 5. 
W. T. Pelton, Xevi-Yorh: 
Just aiTived 9 p. m. Have communicated. P. 

At the same time he sent the following to Senator 
Kellj', who remained at the capital of Oregon, 
trying to get the money: 

[28.] 
San Francisco, Dec. 5. 
J. K. Kelly, Salem, : 

Hearlquarters telegraph me my request granted aa 
first aski^d. Will make transfer to you to-morrow. 
Will vrogramnie be carried outt Answer. Patrick. 
[29.] 

San Francisco, Dec. 5. 
KonxrzB Bros., No. 12 Wall-st., A. Y.: 

Has my account credit by any tunds lately T 
How much t J. N. H. Patrick. 

[30.] 

New-Yokk. Dec. 6. 
J. N. H. Patrick, San Fran.: 
Davis deposited $8,000 December Ist. 

Kounize Brothers. 
[31.] 

San Francisco, Dec. 6. 
J. K. Kelly, Salem : 
Why don't you answer t J. N. H. Patrick. 

Senator Kelly apparently did not answer because 
he was still unable to get the cash, which the blun- 
der of Pelton, or Patrick, or both, had placed where 
it could do no good. 

It was now the day for the final vote. On the 
5th Governor Grover had proceeded to act out his 
part in the performance by burlesquini< the forma 
of law and the principles of equity in the Supreme 
Court-room, where he took his seat on the bench and 
gravely invited the representatives of the KepubU- 
can and Democratic parties to argue the question 
as to the appointment of a person to fill the 
alleged vacancy iu the electoral body. This he did, 
although he had telegraphed secretly to Mr. Tilden, 
four days before, that he should " decide every) 
point in the case in favor of the Democratic elec- 
tor." The Republicans contented themselves with 
a protest, denying the Governor's jurisdiction 
The Democrats argued their side until nearly midn 



40 



Sew-TorJc Tribune— Extra No. 44:— The Cipher Bispatclics. 



night, and then the prearranged judgment vas 
lormally vostiJoneJuntil the morning. 

Meanwhile extraordinary exertions were made, 
both at Salem, at San Francisco, and at New-York, 
to repair the blumler about the transmission of the 
monej'. It was Icnown at Gramercy Park that the 
Blot in Florida had failed, and that the prospect in 
Columbia was unpromising. A second deposit was 
made— this time iu the Liberty Street banking- 
hiuse. 

132.1 

Sax Francisco, Dec. 5. 
Received Salem, Cth, 10 a. m. 
Messrs. Ladd &, Bush : 

J'lie funds from New- York will be deposited your 
credit here to-morrow when bank opens. I know it. 
Act accordingly. W. C. Ukiswold. 

This message, it will be seen, did not reach Salem 
till the morning of tlie meeting of the electoral col- 
lege, when it was probably too late. Messrs. Ladd 
& Bush appear to have been too prudent to paj' 
out money in any irregular way, and late in the 
aftemoou of the 3th the following unsigned dis- 
patch, doubtless from Senator Kelly, was placed on 
the wires: 

[33.1 

Saij:m, Dec. 5 — i P. M. 
W. T. Pelton, yo. 15 Grumeriy lark- 

Brazen welcome cuttle survivor doctrinal Charles 
Diiiion squab taster niveous Ladd & Bush Salem 
brazen Iracture medicine grout minute-gun gradua- 
tion innovator venom summons loweriugly Salem. 
We vizard moveless erratic. 

[I'ranslation.l 

Can't you deposit the eight Charles Diraon subject 
to order Ladd &, Bush, Salem f Can't get money 
here. Must have it Wednesday. Telegraph nie Salem. 
We icill not fail. 

On the morning of the 6th, the deposit was at 
last arranged : 

134.] 

New- York, Dec. G. 
Received Salem Glh, 'I-.-M p. m. 
Ladd & Bush: 

Unable to find Charles Dimon at his office. Wc 
hold lortilicate check payable to your order tor 
$8,000 ou Bank of North America suliject to your 
instructions. JIartin & Kiinyon, 

40 Wail-street. 
New-York, Dec. 6. 
[35.1 
Ladd & Bush, Salem : 

Martin & liunyou have deposired medicine dollars 
for your account. Cuai:lks Dimo.n. 

[36.1 
San Francisco, Dec. 6. 
Ladd & Bush, Salem: 
Deposited $7,380 to your bank. G. 

This amount was the equivalent in gold of the 
$8,000 currency. It was supposed tliat everything 
was now tixed, so that the " programme" could " bu 
carried out," and the consnirators telegraphed to 
Mr. Kelly iu some excitement. The first dispatch 
is doubtless from Mr. Patrick: 
[37.) 
SiX Francisco, Dec. 6. 
J. K. Kklly. Salem : 

Survivor doctrinal cuttled merciless justification 
mortal sulphury pointer vomitive unhorse welkin 
demit. 

[Translation.! 
The eight deposited iMorning. Let )w technicalily 
prevent iiniinin{i. Use your discretion. 



[38.1 

Dec. «. 
To C. B. Bkluxgek, Salem: 

See Bush. Tell Kelly telegraph result Grand 
Hotel. Ans'.vcr. P- ■ 

And there is little risk in assuming that the fol- 
lowing unsigned cipher is from the estimable 
Colonel Pelton, who rose betimes that with the 
sun he might his course of duty run : 

[39.) 
NEW-YoitK, Dec. 6—8:35 A. M. 
Jamfs K. Kelly, Sahm: 

Inm.>st welk'.u lonmer buzzard swain minutely 
association mural mathematics achromatic carpeted 
neglecll'ul welcome peerage moral rackreiit neglect- 
ful alb exatrgeration rationale flatulent sympathy 
simpleton sounetteer ai-'gregate profound. 
[Translation.) 

Is your matter certain f There mnst be no mistake. 
All depends on you. Place no reliance ou any favor- 
able report from three Southern States. Answer 
quick. 

The Governor's decision was withheld until the 
very last moment. A few minutes before the stroke 
of noon, when the electors were to meet and record 
their votes, ho produced the certificates made out in 
favor of two Republicans, Odell and Cartwright 
and one Democrat, Cronin (against whom the 
people had deposited a majority of more than 
1,000), and save them— «i? three to Cronin. Antt 
thus Governor Grover kept his promise to Mr. Til- 
den. Mr. Cronin refused to surrender or even ex- 
hibit the certificates to the two Kcpublicans whom 
he claimed as colleagues. They, on the other hand, 
refused lo recognize him; and when thev proceeded 
to organize according to law, appointing Watts to» 
fill the vacancy, Mr. Cronin retired into a corner of 
the same room and there got up a college of his 
own, appointing two colleagues, and then solemnly 
depositing a vote for Mr. Tilden. Strange stories 
are told about about the final scene. Whether 
one of the Republican electors could have 
been bouglit or not, wi,l possibly never 
be known. But at noon the money had not 
arrived. In this case, as in the two other 
cases described in these pages, the opportuaity for 
a corrupt bargain slipped away while the paymas- 
ter pr(>crastinated. In Florida, as Mr.Woolley tele- 
graphed, '■ Powei'" was " secured too late," In 
South Carolina a " little delay" defeated the project 
for buying •' a majority of Board" for if 80,000 ; and 
now in Oregon — the last hope of the defeated — it 
was nei.rly three hours after the appointed time 
wlieu the nic;'sage .-ame to Ladd & Bush that the 
deposit had been made to their Older in New-York. 
The vast and complex scheme of fraud fell to pieces; 
and with the following curt and melancholy mes- 
sage, Colouel William T. Pelton retired fiom prac- 
tical politics into private life : 
(40.) 

New-York, Dec. 8. 
J. K. Ki.LLY, Salem: 

Summons decisive taster redoubted survivor 
taster ostiary sursolid joy innovator aggregate. 

(Forwarded from Salem.) 
[ Translation. J 

Telegrapli Dimon to return tne to party that 

left it. Answer. 



LOCAL TELEGRAMS. 



Side. Lights on the Secret Operations in Florida. 



CIPHKRS FOR HOME UiSE. 
Among the cipher telegrams not originally published with the more important dispatches 
given in the preceding pages were numerous communications which passed between tho 
local politicians in Florida. Some, though curious in themselves, were omitted from The 
Tribune's narrative because the case was complete without them, and their introduction 
would only obstruct the story. Others related to transactions of which the full bearings had 
not then beeu discovered. A few of them are given, however, herewith, as an appendix to 
the history of the conspiracy. 



*^' 



TUe local cipher telegrams in FIori<la were, with n 
few exoeptiona, composed either of letters having 
an arbitrary signifii^atiou, or of numbers standing 
for ;he letters of the alphabet. In either case, two 
characters were used to represent each letter. 
THE DOUBLE LETTER CIPHER. 

The following Is a specimen of the Double Letter 

Cipher : 

[A.l 

Jackson%ii.le, 13. 
GEO. P. EANET : 1:12 a. m.. Nov. 14. 

YeeiemnsppoisBitplnaltitaashshyyp 
litniniDBSspeenaaimaennsyisupiiisinii 
peaaityyen. D.isiel. 

It was evident, on a slight examination, that 
each letter in this cipher was not a substitute for 
another letter, because double characters— for ex- 
ample, ee, pp, yy, aa, nu, ss, etc.— occurred too fre- 
quently, and in one case the letter s was found three 
times consecutively. Prohably, then, each letter 
in the cipher alphabet consisted of two characters 
Adopting this supposition, the translator turned to 
the following dispatch, which, being nartly in plain 
English, seemed to promise a clew : 
[B.i 

Jacksonville, Nov. 22. 
S. Pasco, TallriJiassee : 

Gave p i> .1 i s h « h 

charge of i ty y i t n 

8 llf SfUl to Ul a 

p i n 8 i ni y y 

p 1 1 1 But not to 

t tie other. Brt^vard returns 

sent you to-day E m y 

y p i » 8 a i n y 

Gone to Tallahassee Talla 

with bim and let me know if I 

shall send trusty messenger. 

.T. J. Daniel. 

This refers to the Democratic operations for col- 



lecting the precinct returns liom all the Florida 
counties before the Canvassing Board proceeded to 
throw out those which were manifestly false. It 
anpeared to be nearly certain that the first cipher 
word was the name of a person, and the second and 
third were names of counties. If we assume that 
each cipher consists of two letters, we must find 
as the equivalent of "ityyitns" a word of four let- 
ters, the first and third of which, " it," are the same. 
"Dade" is the only name in the list of Florida 
counties which fulfils these conditions. The let- 
ters of "Dade" are repeated in the next word,* 
and fit in with the obvious interpretalion 
" Brevard." The six characters now deciphered give 
as the beginning of the first dispatch quoted above, 
the follow. ng tragiueut: 

". * ve **''dredd"*ar-" 
—which, of course, can 1)6 nothing but " Five hun- 
dred dollars." This gives the cipher equivalent of 
eight more letters. The construction of the rest of 
the alphabet was now easy, and in a very short time 
the first dispatch was made out to be, '■ Five hundred 
dollars sent you by express to-day ;" and the second 
was read : " Gave Hull charge of Dade, and he sent 
to Brevard, but not to the other. Brevard letnrns 
sent you to-dav. Varnum gone toTalIaha.<see. Ti.lla 
[talk?] with him and let me know if I shall send 
trusty messenger." 

Tlie dispatches in this cipher are of little import- 
ance by comparison with the correspondence of 
Jlartile, Coyle, Woolley and Pelton, written in much 
more elaborate and difticult cipher-system, and 
printed in the preceding pages of this pamphlet, yet 
they are not without value for punioses of illumina- 



42 



]<cw-Yorh Tribune— Extra .Vo. 44—77(6 Cipher Dispatches. 



tion. The telegram about Dade and Brevard was 
in answer to the following: 
IC] 

Tailahassee, Nov. 22. 
J. J. I>ANIEL, Jacksojtville : 

Yspusprsnyopioissltolpinseppeshen 
p e p p y y p e p e p p u fi p i D s e i i m p i y y i t e 1 e p y 
y8tinyyyDnaapieipeenci!<eilyyitnBpp 
y y e m u a*e n aa a 1 i m n 8 s sp e m m a a a a i t 11 y y 8 
speppuspius. S. Pasco. 

[Translation.] 
We Lear indirectly that tbere is Radical majority in 
Dade. Have yi_-u sent poud man there ? 

The Florida politician.^ trusted a great deal to tha 
Democratic visitors from the North, and seem to 
have been in frequeut commuuicatioii with New- 
York all through tueir time of trouble. One day 
Colonel Peltou telegraphed to Mr. Raney, of the 
Florida State Committee, two editorial ariicles on 
the Southern situation from The Xew-Yorlc Herald, 
one of them being a column long. For this luxury. 
Colonel Pelton had to pay $133 20 ; but p^.•^haps 
that was not too much, for it was probably the 
ablest dispatch he ever sent in his lite. Mr. Coyle's 
progress from North Carolina to Tallahassee was 
traced with the absorbing interest with which a 
hungry army watcbcs the comiug up of the commis- 
sariat : 

ID.] 

Tallahassee, Nov. 11. 
P. A. Holt, LaA-e Citu : 

Be tirm ; our frieud from Ealeigh will be down soon. 

A. B. Hawklks. 

The distinguished visitors were called upon for 

all sorts of service. The following telegram was 

somewhat damaged in transmission, but it is easily 

reuaired : 

[E.] 

JACKSOK^^LLE. Nov. IG. 
Geo. F K.INET. [TaUahax»:c\ : 

PpyyeniushyyvDimashnayyssltepaae 
nshuaseusshusinmpiyysuppyeaapie i a 
syeBhainssspeeiyyahnynss s.>epiaa 
n y i t u 8 8 b jr y s p y y p 1 u 8 y .v s s 1 t e m e i |) i ni m 
ei88elyye'i3l.slitei|e[ily.y[pe] eiaassl m a 
|a yl e 6 p JTi s y 1 y i a n as 8 e 1 .^ .s ni m p p n 8 p i u 8 s n 
p 1 n 8 i 111 i m >■ y i I e m y y s s p fc V y m 111 u e y y s 8 i t 
s P V y P e e p i» p m a a a y y u 1 i I L 'Eugle jiin'S up to- 
morrow. Daniel. 
[ ti un.^lation. i 

Have Mail^le and C(i>le telegraph for lufliientijil men 
from Delaware and Virginia. Indications of wealfcning 
here. Press advantage, and watch Board. L'Euglu goes 
up to- morrow. 

In Bilker County, it will be remembered, a fraudu- 
lent canvass was made surreptitiously by the 
County Clerk. The canvassers consisted by law of 
the County Judge, Sherifi, and Clerk, or any two of 
them. Taking advantage of a brief absence of his 
colleagues, the Clerk called m a Justice of the Peace 
to unite witb him in making a canvass which gave 
a majority to Tilden, and this paper he hastily for- 
warded to the SoiTetary of State. Afterward the 
Judge and SberiiTniacle a lawful canvass, showing a 
small majority for Hayes. When their return was 
submitted to the Board by the Secretary of State. 
the Democrats professed to be " astounded." They 
caused it to be represented all over the North that 
they had no suspicion of the existence of such a 



caovasa until the Secretary of State pulled the 
"surreptitious" paper out of his pocket, and 
that nobody imagined there had been any 
other count of the vote than that made 
by the County Clerk and his improvised 
associate. It is rather comical to find, by these 
newly translated ciphers, that the Democratic "as- 
tonishment'' was purely theatrical. The party lead- 
ers knew all about the double returns, and had been 
striving their hardest to collect testimony lor the 
purpose of persuading the Board to revise the second 
count; or to qnote the fine language of "Moses" 
us'd in reference to the action of the other party, 
" Emissaries went out over State to cook local back- 
ing for alterations m certificates." The following dis- 
patch from Mr. Pasco was sent before the Board 
had opened any returns : 

[F.l 

Tallahassee, Not. 27. 
J. J. Daniel, Jncksonriltf : 

Regular Board organized. Will commence work to- 
morrow. There haa heen new ciinvas.* 'ly full boaiil 
eissmay yian eupiuse peiss eppe im indispensaljle. 

s. Pasco. 

The translation of the last sentence is : " There 
has been new canvass by full Board in Baker ; pre- 
cincts indispensable." So the emissaries went to 
all the precincts and cooked local backing for altera- 
tions, and as a matter of fact the Board did revise 
the count, and give Baker to the Democrats. No 
doubt they conld have reached their end just as 
well without tlie ridiculous pretence of being 
" astounded," But the captured telegi-ams abound 
with evidences of Democratic duplicity and non- 
sense. 

THE DOUBLE NUMBER CIPHER. 

TLe Double Number Cipher employed by the 
Florida politicians consisted of figures, w'th- 
out any interinixturs of words. In undertaking 
the translation of this cipher it was assumed that 
the numbers stood for letters of the alpiia- 
bet and not for words or phrases, since the 
construction of a vocabulary copious enougli to 
give a separate arbitrary sign for every word that 
might be required in the course of an active cor- 
respondence extending over several weeks would 
be a work of enormous labor, and the vocabulary 
when complete would be too elur.isy for use. Then 
if was observed that double and *riple numbers oc- 
curred frequently in this code, whence it was in- 
ferred that, as in the case of the Double Letter 
Cipher, two figures were used for each letter. The 
figures were then pointed off by couples and written 
down in their numerical order. It soon appeared 
that they began at 20, and that there were twenty- 
four ciphers in all, G6 being the most fre;jucnt, and 
93, 82 and 55 coming next in order 

In deciphering correspondence of this class, a 
knowledge of the relative frequency of the charac- 
ters is of some help. E is used oflener than any 
other letter in our language, and after it come t. a, 
o, n, i, etc., etc. But this general rule does not 
always hold good in short telegrams, and it proved 
to be at fault when tried upon the lew number- 



Local Telegrams. 



mesaaeeB in the possession of Thb Tribcse. Some 
other clew to the interpretation therefore had to be 
sought, and it was found in the following dispatch: 
fG.1 
Tallahassee, Not. 19, 1876. 
J. J. Daniel, Jaeksonville, Flo.: 
g455Sy.11!)3J7fi<i8;>-27204i;(;()3455 

33;i;i.;():;4siir,.-,55:i!)'.i.'i4'.'5.-):i:w.i4sil4 
55.-'j'J7i;(;:);i'Jii'Jipr,r>:ii:iit;ii4'j'J7x-'<J(i96 
i):i'.;o>^-.;i;r,4s!i:::r2'j7!i:i44!i;i;t4s-i:n3l27 
!)3'.i:i>-'il-<:i!)f;(;sj'.;i':;i ijHi;4s;i344H296 

;j;H '-fU "J l*<'^"J'^4r» "JiMtlr-^J'JTtH (755552 

4s3'jiii;.-5'.;;i:Jii;i.(i;w:(!<55-J7^-J4s<!6 

524844554'.;sJ4s8'.IM45.j!n;'jr.5233 

8af*4i)'i4S!:)3.ici>.'j:;:js:)',i3-7»><'.i;;4'j20G6 

8()J731!>34slM!(:<42;»;55-.'(>S2li~'<2(l3206r.276« 
77551793 ■^23:!!)95-j:.:is4i-S'J553m'.(i77(;« 
8233274s7755-47'j:U-.':;3.'>"i4L'>ilfi():i3S7(l(i-27'J7 
8233779331 ;'3s44'^5:.42(iG31S7554s93ai;332L>n66(;33 
20e(;9(15227l-^5591iU(l25931(<i84318233(;6332( 18 15534 
778233(;«:-l 4 •^-;29(;'.)i;932U82ti(!4S9;i3 189348-3131 
759o2755o27744484s55»G5542425534 

I/ESflLE. 

At the date of this telegram. November 19, the 
Democratic managers at Tallahassee were in great 
excitement over the mmor that Governor Stearns 
meant to claim autiiority under the statntes of 
Florida, to canvass the Electoral votes. J. J. Daniel 
was one of the most important members of the 
Democratic State Executive Committee. E. M. 
L'Engle was one of his confidential men at the cap- 
ital. It was natural to suppose that this dispatch 
referred to the cliicf topic of the day, and if so the 
word ■' canvass " must be in it somewhere. The 
problem was, therefore, to find a conihination 
of seven numbers, of which the second and tifth, 
st.anding for A. should be the same, and the sixth 
and seventh (S is) also the same. The translator be- 
gan at the beginning and tried every sequence of 
ciphers until at the end of the twelfth line one was 
found which fulfilled the desired conditions, namely, 
"84, 0(5. 3.S, 87, 66. 27, 27." This agrees well 
enough with what is known of the average fre- 
quency of the different letters ; 66 is the com- | 
monest of thc-ie number ciphers, and A, though not 
quite so common a letter as E, stands but little be- 
low it. If 66 represents A, and 33 represents N, 
we may safely assume that the combination 
66, 33, 20. which occurs four times in this dispatch, 
means " and." We now have the translation of six 
of the cipher characters, standing for A, C, D, N, 
S and V. Writing out the numbers in vertical 
columns, and placing the equivalent letter opposite 
every one that has been discovered, we get several 
pieces of words that are easily filled out. For in- 
stance the fragment, " sand d***a*3," is plainly 

"thousand dollars," and this gives ns six more let- 
ters. Twelve important characters being known, 
the rest follow quickly, and we have tins cipher 
alphabet: 



48. 


. t 


52 


u 








20 


d 


25 . . 


It 


27 


s 


31. 


1 


33 




34 w 


39 


p 


42 




44 


h 



62 




66 




68 


f 




b 


77 


iT 


82 ---i 


84 


- C 


87 




89 


y 



93. 
96.. 
99., 



The letters q and z are not in any of the dis- 
patches so far examined. 

This alphabet (its all the dispatches on which it 
has been tried, and it yields, for the one ouoted 
above, the following translation : 

Tallahassee, Nov. 19. 

J. J. TtwiFA., Jarksonrille .* Coylo gays draw on Lilw. 
Cooper .f 1,000 iumictliiite use ; he will sei* It paul. Write 
him piirticulars about Paine aeposit. Authoi-ltv oomnni- 
nicated ni j-estcrday's letlcr modified as aliove. Injunc- 
tion au'Uln^t Governor canvassing electoral vole, auU 
mandamus to iiKiku McLiii and CowgiU act luiDK'diatt'ly 
will be sought io-morrow. L'Enoli:. ' 

Another dispatch, dated two days cp.rl-er. indi- 
cates that for some scheme the Democrats had ou 
foot, they did not trust their own Attorney-Gen- 
eral : 

11I.J 

Jacksonville. Nov. 17. 



9. Pasco 


onrfE. 


M. L' Engle 












84 


55 


84 25 


93 




34 


83 


31 


31 


75 


93 83 


77 




33 


55 


53 


93 


20 


90 (11 6(i, 


77 




65 


33 


84 


63 


31 


31 93 


20 




82 


33 


66 


52 


48 


44 55 


42 




82 


48 


89 


42 


93 


31 82 


(«6 




75 


31 


93 
Daniel. 






ITianflation 


1 








Cocke 


win be 


ignored, Eagan 


called 


in. 


Authority 


reliable. 

















If Mr. Coyle's direction to " draw on Edw. 
Cooper one thousand dollars immediate use " was 
followed, there is no evidence that the money was 
needed for illegitimate purposes, or indeed that the 
draft was paiil. Mr. Cooper was the Trea.mirer of 
the Democratic National Committee, and M". Coyle 
is the kind of man to draw for one thousand dollars 
immediate use whenever ho gets a chance. He is a 
very expensive person, and during the Florida cam- 
paign he seems to have been drawing all the time. 
Nor was ho the onl.v political agent in that little 
State who made heavy demands upon New-York. 
At the first intimation of doubt as to the result of 
the election, the Florida Democrats began to clamor 
for moiiey. On the 10th of November, Messrs. Raney 
and Bloxliain, of the State Executive Committee, 
telegraphed: " To I'olton or Hewitt. Everett House, 
New-York : How much material aid on sight." 
Coyle arrived at Jacksonville on the 13th. and in- 
stantly informed Mi-; H.avemeyer : 

Necessary supiilv tel'^sraphic credit of Pavn-^ f'-i^as- 
urer of tlie State CoriiUiitieeJ in First — Buuli..i:./,3U0. 

This was a pretty large sum to be spent in a small 
State after the election was over; but it seems to 
have been paid, for H. H. replied that the name of 
the person and the name of the bank were unin- 
telligible, and asked if Coyle could not "draw on 
50." On the 18th Coyle united with Mr. Daniel 
and Mr. W. Call in requesting that the deposit 
should he (-hanged to the credit of J. J. Daniel, and 
it is to this transaction that the "number dis- 
patch" translated above probably refers. On the 
18th Mr. Coyle drew on "23" for .SaOO. On the 
19th he authorized Daniel to draw upon Mr. Cooper 
for $1,000. On the 21st he drew for $25 



44 



New-Iork Tribune— Extra Mo. 44- The Cipher Jlispntches. 



Ou the 25tli he djrew for $500. On the 

29th he drew for $550. On the 1st of 

Decern her there is a complaint to Pelton that 

operations are "embarrassed at a critical time" 

because Coyle's demand for further supplies are 

not answered. On the 2il, H. telegraphs to Coyle 

" Unless you have received will remit again." On 

the 4tti Coyle sends the following dispatch to 

Henry Havemeyer : 

You win Rimply immertiiitcly lelCKraphic credit Coyle 
?700, wlii(^Ii will probi.blv cover all expeusee. Notify 
nie proiuj)tly. 

To wbich "P." replied in cipher: 

[I.] 
Twpnty-tlireo thiuks all your seven have been forty- 
one. If not live or t\v«i auy nine yuu twenty-nne 
Answer and rei>ort. 

rTr;inslaIlon.l 
'* Twetity-tiiree " tUiiiks all your drafts have been 
honoiecl. If not will remit or deiiosit any bank yuu 
telegrat'li. Answer and report. 

A dispatch which so encouraged Colonel Coyle 

that lie instantly dx&^v again : 

[J.) 

Tallahassee, Dec. 5. 
Henry Havemeyer, Keiv-York : 

Not rolify ten Thomas nine three Moses and this 
twelve iiiiniodialely Greece will place twenty takes one 
Italy seven W. its any and what need. Max. 

ITranslation.J 
Pupply iF700 tPlegrapliic cri'dit Wonlley and Coyle and 
notify what l)auk In. mediately. Marble will not need 
any. This takes its place. 

As all these drafts were in addition to the largo 
ones made at the close of the canvass, to cover tbe 
purchase of the Canvassing Board, the question 
naturally arises, vrhat can Mr. Coyle have wanted 
of so much money ? There were many queer transac- 
tions among the Democrats m Florida during the 
period between the casting and the counting of the 
votes, and perhaps the following dispatches may 



indicate some of the points at which the "ma- 
terial aid" of Colonel Pelton was required. 
It is well known that the proofs of violence 
and intimidation practised upon the colored 
voters in Florida were met in the Canvassing 
Board by remarkable affidavits from the white 
Democrats, and it would appear t!iat these wit- 
nesses received minute instructions from head- 
quarters as to what they were expected to swear to: 
[K.] 

Dec. 1. 
F. McLeod and A. B. Hagen, La!:e Ofy: 

H."iye Niblack, Ostern and the McKinneys make affi- 
davits that they have never at any time used violence, 
fcirce or intimidation, or threats thereof, to niunce 
McNish. King, Simmons, Boyd, or Thoiunsor any other 
coiiirort men, to vote Democratic ticUet. .Send aflilavita 
to-moirow. B. Pasco, 

liEO. P. RaNEY, 
J. J. Davikl. 
fc. L. Niblack. 

Possibly these gentlemen, at Tallahassee or Jack- 
sonville, knew what the McKinneys and other per- 
sons had never at any time done in the heart of a 
remote interior county ; at any rate they were ptir- 
ticular enough in saying just what they wanted. 
And it was, perhaps, a bundle of similarly precise 
affidavits that the entlinsiastic but cautious Dicke- 
sou refers to in the following dispatch : 

[L.] 

Cedab Keys, Nov. 28. 

82 96 

33 48 

27 96 

66 33 

39 93 

43 93 
93 
J. J. Dickeson. 
[Translation. 1 

I have important papers; more than you eipected : 

great value. 



8. Pasco, 


Tallahassee : 






82 


44 


66 


87 


93 


39 


55 


42 


48 


66 


39 


66 


39 


93 


42 


55 


42 


93 


48 


44 


89 


55 


52 


93 


62 


84 


48 


93 


20 


77 


48 


87 


66 


31 


52 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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013 789 616 3 



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